Getting Ready to Launch

For the past two weeks or so I have been thinking a lot about starting this blog. I've told a few friends about it, a few family members and a very few colleagues. I've wondered about why I'm doing this. The short answer is that I don't know why. I'm just following a small inner voice that kept whispering to me to be grateful and to be public about it.

The longer answer is that I'm on a search for value. On a cold morning in 1987 I set aside my stack of law school applications with the dreadful realization that I had no answer to the essay question staring back at me from each empty packet: "why do you want to do this?" Since then I have looked for what value I can add to the world. At times I have felt quite strongly that I've found it. At other times, well, not so much.

The beginning of 2009 has the feel of a crossroads. Much will change in the outside world - we'll have a new President in a few weeks; at the very least that swearing-in will be a symbol of enormous change. The conversations I have with friends, family, colleagues, and acquaintances suggest that they're all sensing great changes to come, too.

For many years I have said that my only true desire in life is to make a difference for other people. That's utterly true for me. Oddly enough I have long felt that I'm standing on one side of the Grand Canyon, looking across and sensing that the opportunity to make a difference lies on the other rim. Silly, isn't it?

This year I will build a bridge to that other rim. One of the footings of that bridge is gratitude. So that's why I'm writing these pieces and exploring gratitude.

Tell me a bit about you. What would draw you in to participate in a conversation about gratitude?