Living in Gratitude: Week One — An Orientation, Not a Resolution
A January Note: Naming the Invitation
For a long time now, I’ve called this the I'M GRATEFUL FOR YOU Newsletter and usually ended each week the same way:
I’m grateful for you.
I meant it then. I mean it now.
Those words have never been a tagline to me. They’ve been a posture — a way of staying human in a world that moves fast, demands much, and often forgets to pause.
As we step into a new year, I want to name something that’s been quietly forming underneath that phrase.
The invitation has always been more than expressing gratitude. It’s been about living in gratitude.
Not as a performance. Not as forced positivity. But as a way of being — especially when life is heavy, leadership is demanding, and clarity doesn’t come easily.
So as 2026 begins, this newsletter is gently evolving.
The heart remains the same. The gratitude remains personal. The relationship remains.
But the invitation is widening.
We’re going to spend this season exploring what it means to Live IN Gratitude — how it shapes how we notice moments, how we carry pressure, how we lead people, and how we choose to show up when circumstances are unresolved.
I’ll still say it often, because I still believe it deeply:
I’m grateful for you.
And I’m inviting you — as we begin this year together — to live in gratitude with me.
This Week’s Reflection: How Are You Arriving?
January has a way of asking questions before we’re ready to answer them.
How are you starting the year?
What are you carrying with you?
What feels hopeful — and what still feels unresolved?
Before plans, before goals, before intentions, I want to invite a gentler beginning.
Not how you wish you were arriving. Not how others expect you to arrive. But how you actually are.
Because gratitude isn’t something we add on later. It’s a posture we inhabit right where we are.
Even — and sometimes especially — when things are unfinished.
Gratitude as a Way of Being
When people hear the word gratitude, they often think of lists, practices, or moments of thankfulness.
Those have their place.
But Living IN Gratitude is deeper than any one practice.
It’s a way of seeing. A way of holding experience. A way of choosing presence over pressure, awareness over autopilot.
Gratitude doesn’t require resolved circumstances. It requires honesty.
It doesn’t ask us to ignore what’s hard. It helps us stay open inside it.
And over time, something subtle but powerful happens:
Our perception shifts. Our attention steadies. Our capacity for hope grows.
Not because life got easier — but because we learned how to carry it differently.
A Simple Invitation for This Week
As this year begins, I’m not inviting you to do more.
I’m inviting you to pause.
Just long enough to notice:
How am I really arriving into this year?
What am I carrying that deserves acknowledgment?
What feels quietly present — even if it’s small?
You don’t need to fix anything yet. You don’t need answers.
This week is simply about orientation.
Because how you arrive matters more than how fast you move.
One Question to Sit With
As you move through the days ahead, return to this question when you can:
What might it look like to live in gratitude right here — not later, not when things are clearer, but now?
Let that question work on you gently.
There’s no rush.
I’m grateful for you. And I’m glad we’re beginning this year together.