Gratitude in Troubling Times

Gathering in Community.

Troubling times visit like a nightmare in the dreamtime. Individually, we cope, strategize, check-out, and succumb to emotional outbursts. Collectively, we gather. In times such as these, we are reminded that community is the antithesis to tyranny.

However, you might be feeling a sense of dread or even danger in community, especially when individual opinions or beliefs turn extreme. Perhaps it’s time to evaluate your needs. A gratitude practice can help.

Welcome to the monthly Gratitude Project posting.

If you missed the first installment, you can visit the compassionate intentions behind this project at the Invitation to the Sacred Grove.

We left off with the intention to practice awareness and track three unlikely gratitudes daily to shift our perspective from all that feels wrong to what feels authentic to each of us. We also gained a tool: Yoga Nidra.

The point is to practice gratitude even in Troubled Times. It will help keep us grounded. The daily practice can also identify who to connect with in community. With the constant news cycle and highly-charged content, we can feel disoriented.

No doubt—in the U.S. we are grieving, rebelling, and floundering. Also in the U.S. farmers, artists, dreamers, and park rangers are providing ways through. Perhaps you are one of the innovators or inspirations!

My eldest daughter is modeling how to use gratitude as a key to “what next.” Both educated as scientists, they embrace the land and farm. They are making radical decisions to also embrace an uncertain future. Their decisions will not be based on what they’ve lost/will lose; their decisions will be based on what they would lose if they never tried.

In other words, they’re choosing to follow what fills them with gratitude, not dread. More importantly, they are joining or developing communities also committed to what is possible even as the government implodes in the hands of madmen.

A local artist has returned from Europe to rally her community around art, creating space for anyone to experience her color lab through visits, classes, and events. She is grateful for the expression color gives her as a chemist and feminist. And she’s building a community around her sense of gratitude.

My queer friend was denied an event close to their heart. Instead of shutting down, or protesting, the rejection gave them the determination to create their vision in a broader community setting. They’ve found support they didn’t know was out there. A new community is rising.

The VA is getting hammered by DOGE. It has already directly impacted me and my veteran, and I fear losing needed caregiver support. I’ve turned to my core community of Vietnam-era caregivers to create the Gratitude Project, which has allowed me to offer 1,000 Compassionate Voices monthly support from that protect, and share it with my Substack community, too.

These examples do not deny the real and present danger Americans are facing, especially the vulnerable among us. They offer glimpses and sparks of what’s possible from our most authentic heart’s desires. And we can come to or create community from the inner call to gather.

How will you use gratitude to inform the communities that will fulfill and sustain you through Troubled Times?

Until next time (April 14, 2025), continue to develop your gratitude practice, explore your gratitudes to find the embers of your passions, and join like-hearted communities. Stay flexible as Troubled Times bring changes, but stay hopeful and grateful, too.