The Gratitude Project for Change
Over the past five years, a small group of local change-makers have been imagining a shift in our local culture. The shift we are imagining is an acceptance of the fact that we need to carve out deliberate time to pause, to gather without an agenda or “an axe to grind”. It is our intention to make time to think, to talk to each other with open minds, to write and reflect in our journals, to enjoy our backyard, cultivating our personal sense of wonder and awe, and through all of this — we are choosing to remind ourselves of our many reasons to be grateful. We are calling our project: The Bow Valley Gratitude Project for Change.
Each time we convene, we deliberately count our blessings, listen deeply to each other and enjoy hearing the words of poets, writers, rivers rushing, winds blowing and reflecting on our priorities, our networks of relationships, our commitment to community and our emerging ways of leading, growing and showing up in the world.
Whether we reflect on a poem by Rumi (1207 — 1273) who wrote:
Out Beyond Ideas of Wrongdoing and Rightdoing
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
There is a field. I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
The world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase each other
Doesn’t make any sense.
… or an contemplate the insightful words of Richard Wagamese (1955 – 2017) as found in his book: Embers: One Ojibway’s Meditations
My Spiritual Father once told me, “Nothing in the universe ever grew from the outside in.” I like that. It keeps me grounded. It reminds me to be less concerned with outside answers and more focused on the questions inside. It’s the quest for those answers that will lead me to the highest possible version of myself.
… or consider, once again, the timeless reminder of Rachel Carson (1907 – 1964) quote from The Sense of Wonder:
If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantments of later years, the sterile preoccupation with things artificial, the alienation from the sources of our strength.
In our September gathering, we were introduced to the anecdote attributed to Natasha Weber encouraging us to:
Think of a nurse who, after a gruelling shift, watches the sunrise on her drive home. That fleeting moment of beauty doesn’t erase her exhaustion, but it reminds her why she does the work. Gratitude emerges not as forced optimism, but as a natural response to seeing beyond herself. Awe, in this way, acts as a bridge to a more thankful state of mind.”
Each time our group convenes, we leave feeling calmer, more energized and more connected to the land and to each other.
Since March 2023, our small working group — comprised of creative, connected, caring people — has been chatting and reflecting and thinking and refining our ideas related to this initiative. We continue to proceed, one intuitive step at a time. One conversation and one inspiration that points us in the direction of “Yes. This.”
Now it’s March 8, 2026 and we are ready to offer you a sneak peek of: The Gratitude Manifesto for Change.
In these early days, we are choosing to advance our agenda slowly as we connect the dots to a conversation that is more than 2,000 years old. This is a human conversation, being led by a small group of human beings who are inspired and guided by the words of Marcus Tullius Cicero (107 BC – 44 BC):
Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.
Gratitude is core to us, as human beings. We believe that gratitude is essential to our work as leaders, as compassionate change-makers and as thoughtful, honest thinkers who care about meaning, purpose and legacy.
Gratitude is a character strength, an emotion, and a mindset that can ground us and be a consistent point of recalibration for our moral compass . Gratitude is a transformative change agent that can both heal and empower us.
The Gratitude Manifesto for Change:
Vision: To practice gratitude as a defining leadership advantage
Mission: To convene conversations that savour the glimmers of gratitude in our life stories.
Slogan: In a world that rushes forward, we pause to pay attention and reflect
If you would like to participate in an upcoming morning mixer, or if you are interested in learning more about this, our community based Gratitude Project, please get in touch with Lorraine Widmer-Carson.
I am not interested in weapons, whether words or guns, I want to be part of the rescue team for our tired, overcrowded planet. The rescuers will be those people who help other people to think clearly, to be honest and open-minded. They will be an anti-dote to those people who disconnect us. They will de-objectify, rehumanize and make others more understandable and sympathetic.” Mary Pipher, from Writing to Change the World
