I’m writing this on the week of Thanksgiving, 2020, in the USA.

This time period will undoubtedly be noted in World History as “Dark Ages 2.” We are undergoing a global pandemic that has killed hundreds of thousands of people in America. Because of the pandemic, people are separated from each other. Businesses are closing right and left. People are struggling to make ends meet. Kids are at home trying to take their classes. We have undergone four years of a treacherous presidency that has escaped all bounds of any semblance of decency, ethics, or regard for the ideals we hold dear in America. There is civil unrest in America, due to hundreds of years of suppressed voices and unfairly taken lives.

And yet. Here I sit, gazing up at the Autumn sky and feeling deep gratitude.

This is gratitude in practice, and this is why for all of my life, great gratitude instructors have taught us that it’s the practice of gratitude, not being happy in the good times, that will bring peace to our hearts.

I am grateful for our time at home. My kids are at home with me. They are managing their youth interrupted with grace. I am grateful that I live in my favorite city, even as I am watching the struggles increase in keeping our city alive. We are known as a city of live events and activities, which has proven increasingly difficult.

I am grateful for innovation. It is often in times like these that we become most creating out of necessity.

I am grateful that I have been able to continue to teach, to lead, and to develop my methods this year, culminating in the ABC Method Certificate course, my favorite project ever.

I am grateful for so many things that my heart is overwhelmed.

I am grateful for you. Thank you for staying in it for your own wellbeing this year. And if there is anything I can do to help you in your personal recovery, please reach out. I wouldn’t be a teacher without students.