October 8th 2023:Unabashed Gratitude

Unabashed Gratitude: the what, the who,
and the where in the world.

First Reading

The first reading is from the work of Craig Lounsbrough, a counselor, broadcaster, and minister who has worked in treatment settings including psychiatric hospitals, outpatient clinics, facilities for the blind, for the physically disabled, and for developmentally

disabled people. His practice is in Colorado, U.S.A.

These are his words:

“It is far too trite to simply say that we should be ‘thankful,’ for that renders thankfulness as some sort of socially conditioned practice empty of everything and full of nothing. Rather, we should sternly commit to being perpetually thankful so that we might become people empty of nothing and full of everything.”

Second Reading

The second reading is by Karen A. Wyle. She is an attorney, a photographer, and author. She lives, in her own words, “in a county outside a town in Indiana, between two small dots on the map”. Her works include science fiction, fantasy, historical romance, children’s books including “You Can’t Kiss a Bubble,” adult fiction including “Wind, Ocean, Grass,” and one reference work which she believes was, again in her own words “an act of supreme hubris attempting to summarize American law.”

The following excerpt is from her fiction book What Heals the Heart:

“Joshua Gibbs felt sun on his face and thought about opening his eyes. He decided to wait. He had some blessings to savor that wouldn’t need sight.”

Our third reading is by Pierce Brown, an American science fiction author of the 6-volume series Red Rising. At university, he majored in political science and economics and after graduation worked for tech companies including the NBC Page Program. He was living over the garage in his parent’s home when he began writing the series and was turned down by over 120 agents before it was published. It ended up on the New York Times bestseller list in 2014. The six-book series was followed by another 6-issue comic book series and a film. Brown says his characters become deeper as he receives feedback from his readers and he is especially pleased that many from the LGBTQ community resonate with his characters.

The following quote is from his book The Light Bringer:

“To those who wrote that we might read, to those who fell so we might walk, to those who came before so we might come after -

gratitude.