Radical Gratitude
Today’s podcast is all about gratitude. And before i even get into the tofu of everything, i want to start off with some gratitude, myself.
Because one of the things i’m learning on this venture into making my dreams a reality is that empires are not built, books are not written, podcasts aren’t created or recorded, and careers aren’t made in a silo. In a forest of one. Our work is not created in a vacuum.
Yes, it up to us to make the choice to show up every day, sit in our chairs or on our floor and do the work regardless of what else is going on in the world, in our community, our own house. But the fulfillment of our dreams, the actual embodiment and the physicalization of them are not done alone.
And if we think we can do it all and do it all by ourselves then we have already doomed ourselves before we even take our first step out.
All the ideas, projects, and visions are mine alone. But bringing them out into the world i’ve had some beautiful and magical help along the way. Some financial. Most of it in the form of support and belief—and shoulders to cry on when i didn’t know where the rent was going to come from.
There is nothing wrong with help. And i refuse to live in a world any longer that equates asking for help as weakness. Because it is not. And i’m tired of feeling that way. i am learning through the examples set forth by my teachers that asking can be a form of service.
What i’m learning on my own as i integrate the practice of asking daily, is that asking can be a form of resistance too.
Resistance to the system that wants to bill it as a weakness. As ‘handouts.’ as less valuable as pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. Who fucking wears bootstraps anyway?!?! Fuckers we have no desire of being or aspiring to, that’s who…
But anyway i digress . . .
So on this daily journey of asking i’m on, i’m also on a journey of daily gratitude—but not just ANY kind of gratitude you know the ones i’m talking about … the superficial gratitude where gratitude feels like yet another chore, another thing to add to our to-dos in order to create the outcome and manifest what we want.
That’s hella empty. And no real lasting change can come from something that is only seeded underneath a thin layer of soil.
What i’m talking about, is the kind of gratitude that is seeded in your panza, your belly, your hut, your ganas, your intuition.
And my goal for this episode is to be an example of this kind of radical gratitude. And also share with you a downloadable worksheet that will help you channel the spirit of this kind of gratitude where gratitude exists as an act of resistance.
This is the kind of gratitude that will revolutionize your spirit and sink your roots into the soul of your work.
And because this shit is scary, i will go first.
My Radical Gratitude
i am grateful for the winds the soil the earth that brought me here. That led me to incarnate at this moment.
i am grateful for all the stars, galaxies, and universes that make up the construction of me.
i am grateful for all my teachers who gave me extra homework, not as a punishment, but because they knew that this particular information they were giving me was needed to help me grow.
i am grateful for Miss B my middle school theater arts teacher. The most profoundly impactful teacher that i have ever (and will ever meet). Without you, my bravery would have never been birthed. Without you, i would have never been able to find or stay true to my own voice and forge & value my own opinions.
i am grateful for Miss Sullivan my high school creative writing teacher whose inability to see that in the realm of the imagination anything is possible, including metaphors of hands being souls. Your unwillingness to see beyond the physical led me to seek out humans who saw the connection in everything and everyone.
i am grateful for the two humans that came together in union and love to bring me into this world. Your love and support of everything i do—even if you and especially when you didn’t agree—is still teaching me lessons about approaching EVERYONE from a place of love.
i am grateful for the humans who without reason or cause took the leap to believe in me. Dana Barber, who from the moment i created my first magazine backed everything both financially and in an unlimited supply of belief. Many of the things you see in my orbit including my website and this podcast would not have been possible without his generosity.
Devin Dame & Gage Gatlyn. We shift and change. And i am grateful that we have shifted in ways that have brought all of us closer to the real purposes of our respective lives. You have taught me to give without attachment or expectation.
i am grateful to the universal force and whatever planetary alignments brought my beloved C to me. You were a leap i never intended to make … but also the one that was most significant in instigating all this change.
And lastly, i am grateful for you. The you’s that i see. The you’s hanging out and listening in silence. The you’s that will come. And the you’s that will go. We are forever beaded together in this global couture garment called life. Without you, there would be no space. Without you, there would be no hope. Without you can there be no change.
And i’m fucking grateful for all that change you and i will bring, together.
Your Radical Gratitude
Today, i’m challenging you to dig deep and let your soul write everything it is grateful for. Download your FREE 100 Things worksheet HERE.
But i also have one more free gift for you.
While i LOVE the sound of my voice lol it gets sooo fucking boring. So i created a free community, outside of Facebook—outside of all the noise we already have going on in our daily lives.
A space just for us to engage, to help each other, and ask for help—and to go deeper into the conversation in a way that a podcast alone can’t do.
The community is called Mi Gente. It’s free. And you’ll find a link to it in the same place too.
Until then i am wishing you a week full of radical gratitude, love, and resonate change.
i believe in you.
And i am grateful for you—and all the gifts you have that you share with the world.
🖤💡✊🏾
contigo,
xo-b
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