This is the Barbaras’ show with Barbara Gruener and Barbara Bray (me) on my virtual porch. We were excited to talk about “Gratitude” which is close to our hearts. We wanted to discuss why it is important to have gratitude as a daily habit.  

We shared our walk-up songs. My walk-up song is “Rise” by Andra Day. Barbara G’s walk-up song is “Up Up Up” by Rose Falcon. We were surprised that both of our songs had similar themes. You can hear excerpts of both songs in the reflection that goes with this post. 

I get up every morning and write a gratitude note. I feel grateful as I walk with my coffee in my garden enjoying the birds, flowers, bees, and everything. 

Barbara G. shared that everything today is a gift, yesterday is a gift, and tomorrow (if we’re lucky) will be a gift. She feels that Gratitude has so much POWER and shared a prescripted gratitude journal “A Gratitude with Attitude” with props, prompts, and much more. Two questions/prompts include:



What was today’s victory? 

Key people who I’m grateful for.





I talked about my gratitude jar where I write something on a slip of paper I’m grateful for. Writing a gratitude note shows me how lucky I am to be here and to have this person or that person in my life. At the end of each week, I reach inside the jar full of notes and read one of the gratitudes out loud. 



Barbara G. talked about how writing gratitude in a journal or on paper is like therapy or medicine. You can’t have negative thoughts if you say you are grateful every day. It’s that feeling of being lucky to be alive. 

Liz Murray from Homeless to Harvard said, “Gratitude is imagining what you do have could just easily be what you don’t have.” Her message was so powerful. She gave a speech one year before school that started with “Imagining what you do have could just be easily gone.” 

Oprah Winfrey had a similar quote. “Be thankful for what you have and you will end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never have enough.” It’s all about our beliefs. If you believe you can be the person you want to be, you can become that person.

Some people say it is an “Attitude of Gratitude” but it is more than that. It is the ABUNDANCE mindset. This does have an attitude component but this mindset needs to be a lifestyle, a way of life. 

When we’re older, we may focus on our health issues and how bad we’re feeling. I understand it’s difficult to think of anything else when we’re not feeling well. However, it can take over our minds and that’s all we think about. If we focus on how lucky we are to be here, we put more energy into that ABUNDANCE mindset. I have health issues but having this mindset has impacted me. I feel great and grateful every day. I was fortunate to coach Miriam Winokur as she wrote her memoir. Miriam is my friend, Ilene Winokur’s mom. She had an amazing life and lived 99 years. In fact, from age 86 to 92 she was a competitive ballroom dancer. Miriam taught me about LIFE and that we only have one life. 

Why not be grateful and live life to the fullest every day? ~ Miriam Winokur

Barbara G. did the research for a gratitude talk she was going to give. One of the suggestions was from Huston Kraft: “Specificity leads to Significance or Relevance.