GRATITUDE SALAD

Karen Kenney: 00:00:00

It's the Karen Kenney show. Hey, you guys,

Karen Kenney: 00:00:04

welcome to the Karen Kenney show. I'm super duper excited.

Karen Kenney: 00:00:08

I'm mostly excited because number one, I'm talking to you.

Karen Kenney: 00:00:11

So, hi, hi. Thank you so much for being here. But also, you

Karen Kenney: 00:00:16

guys, can you see, like, you can't really see, but maybe you

Karen Kenney: 00:00:19

can see a little bit of the sun in the background, it is such a

Karen Kenney: 00:00:21

wicked nice day out here, and I'm gonna go for a little run

Karen Kenney: 00:00:23

walk in a minute, so I'm jazzed about that. But before I did,

Karen Kenney: 00:00:26

before I get out there, get all sweaty, I was like, okay, I'm

Karen Kenney: 00:00:29

just gonna like share something that happens to me, so and it's

Karen Kenney: 00:00:33

gonna apply to you as well, okay? So hopefully it's helpful.

Karen Kenney: 00:00:37

All right, fingers crossed, everybody, let's just cross our

Karen Kenney: 00:00:39

fingers that this is helpful, so you know that we call it like

Karen Kenney: 00:00:44

the liminal space. It's kind of like the in-between space, you

Karen Kenney: 00:00:47

know that space right before, like you're still kind of like

Karen Kenney: 00:00:50

half asleep, and you're just waking up, or it's the middle of

Karen Kenney: 00:00:53

the night and you wake up for a second, or that time at night as

Karen Kenney: 00:00:56

you're falling asleep as you're going to bed. Right, there's

Karen Kenney: 00:00:59

kind of this place we talk about where, for me, it's when the

Karen Kenney: 00:01:02

subconscious is like really, really like open and open for

Karen Kenney: 00:01:06

business and available, and is sometimes just kind of

Karen Kenney: 00:01:09

whispering secrets or saying things, right? So I keep a

Karen Kenney: 00:01:13

little mini notebook, a little mini notebook, spiral notebook,

Karen Kenney: 00:01:17

and a pen next to my bed at all times, right, because I know

Karen Kenney: 00:01:20

inevitably I'm gonna wake up in the middle of the night, or it's

Karen Kenney: 00:01:23

like first thing in the morning, or as I'm going to sleep, and an

Karen Kenney: 00:01:25

idea, a thought, an inspiration. The muse is like flying overhead

Karen Kenney: 00:01:30

and dropping something, and I always used to say to myself,

Karen Kenney: 00:01:33

"Oh, I'll remember that, and then the next morning, like it's

Karen Kenney: 00:01:36

like the tail end of it, like I can't even, like I couldn't

Karen Kenney: 00:01:39

quite grab it and bring it back into my mind, so I'm like, I'm

Karen Kenney: 00:01:42

like, screw that. So now I keep a little spiral notebook and a

Karen Kenney: 00:01:46

pen right next to my bed, so I can jot things down as they

Karen Kenney: 00:01:49

occur to me. So look at that, I'm just gonna hold it up and

Karen Kenney: 00:01:51

show it to you. This is random little piece of paper, right?

Karen Kenney: 00:01:55

It's like the writing is like, so these, these down here I

Karen Kenney: 00:01:58

wrote this morning, but for those of you who are listening,

Karen Kenney: 00:02:01

it's a, it's a small little rectangular piece of paper, and

Karen Kenney: 00:02:04

it's got writing on it, and it's like really messy, and it makes

Karen Kenney: 00:02:06

no sense, you know. Why? It's because I wrote it at like 430

Karen Kenney: 00:02:10

or 330 whatever time it was, when I got up to pee, and so all

Karen Kenney: 00:02:14

of a sudden this word pops into my head, and I know why this

Karen Kenney: 00:02:19

word popped into my head, it's because I had been thinking

Karen Kenney: 00:02:22

before going to bed that I maybe needed a little bit of an

Karen Kenney: 00:02:26

attitude adjustment. Okay, guys, you know how there are just days

Karen Kenney: 00:02:35

when you feel like everything, every little thing is annoying

Karen Kenney: 00:02:40

you. We've talked before about how our brains have what we call

Karen Kenney: 00:02:44

a negativity bias, right? It's always looking for the negative

Karen Kenney: 00:02:48

stuff, it's always looking, and it's not just looking so it can

Karen Kenney: 00:02:52

find things to bitch and moan about and whine about and

Karen Kenney: 00:02:55

complain. It's not that it's often looking for things in your

Karen Kenney: 00:02:59

environment to keep you safe, right, to make sure it's always

Karen Kenney: 00:03:02

like Dan, well, Robinson, but it's really, really easy to kind

Karen Kenney: 00:03:05

of get in this loop of like negativity or nitpicking and

Karen Kenney: 00:03:09

just tearing down everything. So the other day, and you guys know

Karen Kenney: 00:03:14

me, you've been around the block long enough, I mean, if you're

Karen Kenney: 00:03:16

new here, hello, thank you, I'm so happy you're here, but those

Karen Kenney: 00:03:19

of you who have been here for like six seven years, like you

Karen Kenney: 00:03:22

know, like I tend to be a pretty positive person. I am able to

Karen Kenney: 00:03:26

find the silver lining in most things, and I, I do, and I look

Karen Kenney: 00:03:29

for the good, right? I look for the good, the beautiful, and the

Karen Kenney: 00:03:31

holy. But every once in a while, I'll be having a day, and I'll

Karen Kenney: 00:03:34

catch myself, and I'll be like, Jesus, you're just like really

Karen Kenney: 00:03:37

kind of critical on things, like, what, what is going on,

Karen Kenney: 00:03:40

and usually it's because if I'm out of balance, if I'm tired, if

Karen Kenney: 00:03:44

I feel like I'm, you know, have been forced to do a bunch of

Karen Kenney: 00:03:47

things that really I don't want to do, like, and whatever that

Karen Kenney: 00:03:51

is, right? No, I'm adult, nobody like makes me, but sometimes you

Karen Kenney: 00:03:55

got to do things because you got a whole lot like make money or

Karen Kenney: 00:03:58

blah blah blah, whatever it is, so I just found myself being a

Karen Kenney: 00:04:01

little cranky or a little whiney or whatever it was, but I didn't

Karen Kenney: 00:04:05

really like where, where, where my mind had been, and I was

Karen Kenney: 00:04:09

like, you need like a little attitude adjustment, Missy, and

Karen Kenney: 00:04:11

I was like talking to myself, and then I go to bed, so in the

Karen Kenney: 00:04:14

middle of the night I woke up, and all of a sudden this word

Karen Kenney: 00:04:17

pops into my head, and this is the word, the phrase is

Karen Kenney: 00:04:21

gratitude salad. I was like, oh my god, I was like gratitude

Karen Kenney: 00:04:29

salad. I'm like, what the fuck do I.. what does my brain mean

Karen Kenney: 00:04:34

by gratitude salad? And I started to think, like, I love..

Karen Kenney: 00:04:39

I love how the little librarians up in my brain, right? I have, I

Karen Kenney: 00:04:43

could think of my subconscious mind as like my head, like the

Karen Kenney: 00:04:47

my brain and my mind is being like a library, and I have these

Karen Kenney: 00:04:50

little librarians up there, right, and they're in the to the

Karen Kenney: 00:04:52

Dewey Decimal System, and they're always like pulling,

Karen Kenney: 00:04:55

they're like they're like pulling out their little card

Karen Kenney: 00:04:57

rack of like the card catalog. Of like memories and thoughts

Karen Kenney: 00:05:02

and stories and meaning I've assigned to things and habits

Karen Kenney: 00:05:05

and patterns and all my bullshit, all my stuff, my

Karen Kenney: 00:05:07

fears, my anxieties, right. It's all up there, and they'll just

Karen Kenney: 00:05:10

like pull it forward, like drop some stuff down. So I'm like, oh

Karen Kenney: 00:05:14

my god, gratitude salad, and I started laughing because I just

Karen Kenney: 00:05:17

had a salad, like for dinner, right, as part of my dinner, and

Karen Kenney: 00:05:22

this is what stay with me, because I make this make sense

Karen Kenney: 00:05:24

for you. Like, why do you give a shit about the gratitude salad?

Karen Kenney: 00:05:27

Because this is what I started to think about. So many people

Karen Kenney: 00:05:31

are told, right, if you're suffering, if you're upset, if

Karen Kenney: 00:05:34

you're not happy, blah blah blah blah blah. They're often the

Karen Kenney: 00:05:37

prescription they get is to have a gratitude practice. Look,

Karen Kenney: 00:05:42

gratitude. gratitude practice is awesome. It's fantastic. It can

Karen Kenney: 00:05:45

be so helpful, but what happens with, like, any other thing that

Karen Kenney: 00:05:49

we do? If you tend to do it daily, or all the time, or once

Karen Kenney: 00:05:54

a day, or start your day that way.. blah blah blah. So many

Karen Kenney: 00:05:56

people, at some point, just start to go through the motions,

Karen Kenney: 00:06:00

right? They'll be like, yeah, I'm grateful for this, and

Karen Kenney: 00:06:03

they'll write a couple of things down, but they're, they're doing

Karen Kenney: 00:06:05

it from their head, right, they're not really feeling the

Karen Kenney: 00:06:09

gratitude, they're not really doing it, they're doing it more

Karen Kenney: 00:06:12

like rote, right, like rote, like regular old whatever,

Karen Kenney: 00:06:15

rather than more like a ritual or whatever, and so I started to

Karen Kenney: 00:06:19

think about like this gratitude salad, and it's like when I make

Karen Kenney: 00:06:23

a salad, I don't know about you guys, but I'm wicked picky when

Karen Kenney: 00:06:26

it comes to like the textures in my bowl, the colors in my bowl,

Karen Kenney: 00:06:30

like how things look now. Don't get me wrong, I can eat a very

Karen Kenney: 00:06:33

basic, like, like you know, iceberg lettuce salad if I had

Karen Kenney: 00:06:37

to. Hello, as a vegan, I've had to eat many, you know, not, not

Karen Kenney: 00:06:40

so fantastic salads, but and my salads aren't wicked fancy,

Karen Kenney: 00:06:45

right? So, if I make a salad, let me, let me tell you what I

Karen Kenney: 00:06:48

mean. So, if I make a salad, right, I always want some sort

Karen Kenney: 00:06:51

of like greens, right? It can be like mixed greens or whatever,

Karen Kenney: 00:06:55

and then I always like to add in some crunchy romaine lettuce,

Karen Kenney: 00:06:59

right, and I dice it up, and I like it real. I don't like the

Karen Kenney: 00:07:02

ends that are like green and wilty, like I really like the

Karen Kenney: 00:07:05

crunchy bits, you know what I mean. So I always have like a

Karen Kenney: 00:07:07

good crunchy base for my salad, and then I throw in like

Karen Kenney: 00:07:11

matchsticks, carrots, chopped up celery, like I said, it's not

Karen Kenney: 00:07:14

super fancy, but and then I take little tomatoes and I dice them

Karen Kenney: 00:07:18

up, you know, and then I put on some sunflower seeds, right, and

Karen Kenney: 00:07:22

then maybe some really yummy vegan croutons, if I have them.

Karen Kenney: 00:07:25

Then, of course, a dressing. Okay, so there's these elements,

Karen Kenney: 00:07:27

is these elements to this salad. So, when I started thinking

Karen Kenney: 00:07:31

about the gratitude salad that my subconscious delivered to me

Karen Kenney: 00:07:34

as a solution to my fucking bad attitude, I was like, okay, my

Karen Kenney: 00:07:42

salads have these different textures, these different

Karen Kenney: 00:07:46

flavors, these different colors, right? And I really think about

Karen Kenney: 00:07:49

it when I'm making it. I don't just throw it into the bowl,

Karen Kenney: 00:07:52

right? Like, I break up the lettuce, I chop it to the right

Karen Kenney: 00:07:54

size, I, you know, everything is just like made with

Karen Kenney: 00:07:58

thoughtfulness and with care, and especially if I'm making one

Karen Kenney: 00:08:00

for my sweetie too, because he makes it slightly different.

Karen Kenney: 00:08:03

Okay, here's what I'm saying. So it's so easy to just do like I'm

Karen Kenney: 00:08:08

gonna write down three things that I'm grateful for, Marin

Karen Kenney: 00:08:10

Rama, and I'm like, but I, you, are you really feeling grateful?

Karen Kenney: 00:08:13

Are you really putting a variety of things in there? And I was

Karen Kenney: 00:08:16

like, okay, well, if I was gonna say to my students, or one of my

Karen Kenney: 00:08:19

clients, my yoga students, or one of my clients, or if I was

Karen Kenney: 00:08:22

giving a prompt to, like, some of my writers for a write club,

Karen Kenney: 00:08:25

or whatever, I would say to them, Okay, here's some elements

Karen Kenney: 00:08:29

that I want you to think about. So, as a practice, I'm just

Karen Kenney: 00:08:33

throwing this out there in case you find it helpful, because I

Karen Kenney: 00:08:36

have found this really helpful, right, since I've started doing

Karen Kenney: 00:08:41

this, since I had the thought of God of gratitude salad, instead

Karen Kenney: 00:08:44

of God salad, instead of the regular old God and variety,

Karen Kenney: 00:08:48

right? A little gratitude salad has different elements. So,

Karen Kenney: 00:08:51

here's some ideas for you. So, this is how I've been kind of

Karen Kenney: 00:08:55

keeping it fresh when I find myself, right, getting a little

Karen Kenney: 00:08:58

whiney or just a little ungrateful, you know, when you

Karen Kenney: 00:09:01

can just start to take people or things for granted, or you start

Karen Kenney: 00:09:05

to, like, I don't know, just not appreciate people, place things,

Karen Kenney: 00:09:10

like your even the basics, like your health, your wealth, your

Karen Kenney: 00:09:13

whatever. We can be rich in lots of different ways. So I started

Karen Kenney: 00:09:17

doing this. Okay, so each day, right, I'm going to try to think

Karen Kenney: 00:09:21

of a person I'm grateful for, an animal that I'm grateful for,

Karen Kenney: 00:09:27

and now I'll just throw some other things. Right, it could be

Karen Kenney: 00:09:30

a place you're grateful for, some place you visited, some

Karen Kenney: 00:09:33

place you grew up, some place that has the best vegan waffles,

Karen Kenney: 00:09:37

like whatever it is, right, a thing that you're grateful for.

Karen Kenney: 00:09:41

Now, a lot of times we're told that we shouldn't love things,

Karen Kenney: 00:09:44

just love people, love animals, and I agree with that, but there

Karen Kenney: 00:09:47

are certain things that might hold, hold something really

Karen Kenney: 00:09:51

valuable to you. There might be some sentiment to it, right,

Karen Kenney: 00:09:55

which leads us to the next thing, which is a feeling. So,

Karen Kenney: 00:09:58

when you do your gratitude. Practice, see when you're

Karen Kenney: 00:10:01

thinking of this person, you know, if you can now, not

Karen Kenney: 00:10:04

everybody can visualize in their mind, but for those of you who

Karen Kenney: 00:10:08

can, who can imagine, who can see, right, who can, you know,

Karen Kenney: 00:10:11

like has has visual ability in their brain, try to really see

Karen Kenney: 00:10:17

that person, and don't just see them like as a still shot, see

Karen Kenney: 00:10:21

if you can see them as a movie, see if you can see them as a

Karen Kenney: 00:10:25

movie in color, maybe it's like their laugh, or there was

Karen Kenney: 00:10:29

something about them that you loved when they would do a

Karen Kenney: 00:10:31

particular quirky thing, right? Try to really see them. I'm

Karen Kenney: 00:10:35

already picturing somebody in my head right now, and you can see

Karen Kenney: 00:10:38

if you're watching this, you see my face, I'm just smiling, my

Karen Kenney: 00:10:40

eyes just lit up, because it was like, oh, I started when I

Karen Kenney: 00:10:42

closed my eyes, I started the movie in my head, and I saw this

Karen Kenney: 00:10:46

person, I saw them in color, and then I saw them up close, I

Karen Kenney: 00:10:49

brought them up close rather than in the distance, right? And

Karen Kenney: 00:10:51

when we do that in our brain, and we see this person in color

Karen Kenney: 00:10:56

as a movie in motion up close, right, we can actually start to

Karen Kenney: 00:10:59

like generate some biochemical, like a physiological response,

Karen Kenney: 00:11:03

right. And then take a moment to envision that person, and I

Karen Kenney: 00:11:06

always say, if there's somebody in your life that you're

Karen Kenney: 00:11:09

grateful for, and they're still alive, they're still with us,

Karen Kenney: 00:11:13

let them know, send up a flare, write them a handwritten note,

Karen Kenney: 00:11:16

snail mail, like, like, go old school, like, right. And

Karen Kenney: 00:11:20

obviously, if you can't afford, I'm not being fresh. If you

Karen Kenney: 00:11:22

can't afford a stamp, and you don't have time to, like, get to

Karen Kenney: 00:11:25

the post office, or whatever, at the very least, like, call them

Karen Kenney: 00:11:28

up, or shoot them a text, whatever you got to do. But let

Karen Kenney: 00:11:30

them know that you're grateful for them, and why go the extra

Karen Kenney: 00:11:33

distance, be specific, give specific feedback, right? Maybe

Karen Kenney: 00:11:37

it's an animal that's alive, that was a beloved pet that's no

Karen Kenney: 00:11:42

longer with you, a furry kid, right? Or maybe it's just an

Karen Kenney: 00:11:45

animal out in the wild. Maybe you're lucky enough to have,

Karen Kenney: 00:11:47

like, a porcupine that lives in your yard, or a groundhog, or

Karen Kenney: 00:11:50

something special. There's a particular bird that visits that

Karen Kenney: 00:11:53

you love, right? And really, again, take a moment and let

Karen Kenney: 00:11:56

your hat, let your hat actually feel the feeling of that

Karen Kenney: 00:12:02

gratitude, right? Maybe it's a place, maybe it's some place,

Karen Kenney: 00:12:05

the place you got married, the place you fell in love, the

Karen Kenney: 00:12:09

place where your child was born, the place where you got your

Karen Kenney: 00:12:11

first book deal, the place where you discovered, oh, I'm a

Karen Kenney: 00:12:15

musician, or what, you had the epiphany, right, like, oh, I'm

Karen Kenney: 00:12:19

gay, I'm this, I'm that, whatever the thing is, right?

Karen Kenney: 00:12:23

Wait, some, some place that holds meaning for you, maybe

Karen Kenney: 00:12:26

it's a cemetery, or you know, whatever, your old school,

Karen Kenney: 00:12:30

right, with that one teacher who just really saw you and got you

Karen Kenney: 00:12:34

and loved you, whatever it is, right. And then think of a

Karen Kenney: 00:12:37

thing, right, I can just show you right now, hold up this

Karen Kenney: 00:12:40

little fox that I have, right, my little, my little fox that my

Karen Kenney: 00:12:45

sweetie got me, right. She came all the way from Ireland, and I

Karen Kenney: 00:12:49

love my little fox with his little green scarf, right. And

Karen Kenney: 00:12:52

he sits on my desk, and I'm so grateful for this, because when

Karen Kenney: 00:12:54

I see this, I not only think of my sweetie and his love for me,

Karen Kenney: 00:12:58

and he knew that I really wanted this little fox, but also the

Karen Kenney: 00:13:03

artist that made it, and I just so appreciate the reminder of

Karen Kenney: 00:13:06

people's creativity, you know, so like a thing, and then you

Karen Kenney: 00:13:10

could also be grateful for a feeling, right? Maybe there's a

Karen Kenney: 00:13:14

feeling that you love to have, right, when, and when you have

Karen Kenney: 00:13:17

it, you're just like, oh my god, right? So do all of this with

Karen Kenney: 00:13:20

feeling, so when you're building your gratitude salad, right,

Karen Kenney: 00:13:24

it's like maybe the person is like the lettuce, right? You

Karen Kenney: 00:13:28

know what I mean, it's like that's the bulk of it is the

Karen Kenney: 00:13:30

humans in your life, and then you know maybe the carrots are

Karen Kenney: 00:13:33

the other critters, you know, it's like the animals, like

Karen Kenney: 00:13:35

whatever, but when you're building your gratitude salad,

Karen Kenney: 00:13:38

like sprinkle some interesting shit in there, like some stuff

Karen Kenney: 00:13:42

that maybe you hadn't thought of being grateful for, looking at

Karen Kenney: 00:13:45

it from a different perspective, you know. One of the things that

Karen Kenney: 00:13:48

I'm also grateful for sometimes is really good stories, right?

Karen Kenney: 00:13:53

I'm like, oh my god, it's one of the things I love the most about

Karen Kenney: 00:13:56

Write Club. So, if you've been listening and paying attention,

Karen Kenney: 00:14:00

right, so I'm a certified gateless writing instructor.

Karen Kenney: 00:14:02

I've been doing writing workshops since 2004 In 2014 I

Karen Kenney: 00:14:06

got certified as a gateless writing instructor. And so I do

Karen Kenney: 00:14:10

these writing workshops. I've taught week-long workshops at

Karen Kenney: 00:14:13

the Omega Institute. I've done them locally, I've done them

Karen Kenney: 00:14:16

online. I've been doing this for a wicked long time. Right, I

Karen Kenney: 00:14:19

just did one in the fall for the International Women's Writing

Karen Kenney: 00:14:23

Guild online, but locally I'm going to be doing them once a

Karen Kenney: 00:14:27

month in person. I'm holding up my friend's card, it's the 11th

Karen Kenney: 00:14:31

Letter Writing Gallery at 146 North Main Street in Conkin. My

Karen Kenney: 00:14:35

friend Jocelyn Wynn owns the writing gallery, and I'm going

Karen Kenney: 00:14:38

to be holding them there. And our first one is this Saturday,

Karen Kenney: 00:14:42

may 30, from one to 4pm and if you want to join us for that,

Karen Kenney: 00:14:45

you guys, if you're a local writer or somebody who would

Karen Kenney: 00:14:48

drive from Mass, Vermont, Maine, whatever, just go to Karen

Karen Kenney: 00:14:51

kenney.com/write Club, one word, and all the info is right there.

Karen Kenney: 00:14:57

Okay, so one of my favorite things about Write Club. Of is

Karen Kenney: 00:15:00

after we do like the embodied meditation, we do the prompt, we

Karen Kenney: 00:15:04

write, everybody gets a chance to read, and then they get a

Karen Kenney: 00:15:08

chance to receive only loving, positive, uplifting feedback,

Karen Kenney: 00:15:13

right? They get feedback about where their work is strong and

Karen Kenney: 00:15:16

where the power is, and where their genius lives, their

Karen Kenney: 00:15:19

creativity, it's like such a powerful and positive way to

Karen Kenney: 00:15:23

write in a group, but one of my favorite things is getting to

Karen Kenney: 00:15:28

listen to people read their work, to read the stories that

Karen Kenney: 00:15:32

have been inside of them, now coming out, hearing their voice,

Karen Kenney: 00:15:36

and hearing stories. So, when I was thinking about my gratitude

Karen Kenney: 00:15:39

salad, I was like, oh man, what's a story that I'm grateful

Karen Kenney: 00:15:45

for lately. And some of you may know that Stephen Colbert, the

Karen Kenney: 00:15:49

amazing Stephen Colbert, has been taken off the air. His show

Karen Kenney: 00:15:53

ended, but before that, I was watching something, and his

Karen Kenney: 00:15:59

wife, they asked his wife or something, something about

Karen Kenney: 00:16:02

Stephen that she loved, and she says when I met Stephen, he was

Karen Kenney: 00:16:08

around, I think that she said like 27 or something like that,

Karen Kenney: 00:16:11

and she's like he was only 27 but he already had crow's feet,

Karen Kenney: 00:16:15

he already had crow's lines and crow's feet around like his face

Karen Kenney: 00:16:19

and mouth by 27 because from laughing and smiling so much

Karen Kenney: 00:16:25

already in his life. Now, if you know Stephen Colbert's story,

Karen Kenney: 00:16:29

you know it's also mocked by tragedy in deep loss, you know,

Karen Kenney: 00:16:35

but the fact that she said by 27 one of the things she fell in

Karen Kenney: 00:16:39

love with him for is that he already had crows feet at 27

Karen Kenney: 00:16:41

from laughing and smiling so much. That story has stayed with

Karen Kenney: 00:16:45

me, and I think about it. I think about it throughout the

Karen Kenney: 00:16:47

day, and I think about him smiling, and I think about his

Karen Kenney: 00:16:51

genuineness, and I think about his character, and what we've

Karen Kenney: 00:16:53

gotten to know. I mean, of course, I've never met the man

Karen Kenney: 00:16:55

in person, but what I've seen of him over the years, and I love

Karen Kenney: 00:17:00

that story that she fell in love with the fact that he already

Karen Kenney: 00:17:04

had wrinkles because he had laughed and smiled so much, and

Karen Kenney: 00:17:06

I just thought, oh man, right, to have that kind of essence and

Karen Kenney: 00:17:10

energy that somebody would fall in love with you because you

Karen Kenney: 00:17:13

walk around with so much joy and so much life and so many stories

Karen Kenney: 00:17:17

right within you. I just thought it was so cool, and so I just

Karen Kenney: 00:17:20

wanted to share with you guys, because look, it's so easy right

Karen Kenney: 00:17:24

now, it's so easy right now out there, with the world being such

Karen Kenney: 00:17:28

a fucking crazy shit show, it's easy to just get focusing on all

Karen Kenney: 00:17:34

the things that aren't working, all the things that are going

Karen Kenney: 00:17:36

wrong, and look, those things do need our attention, this isn't

Karen Kenney: 00:17:39

about gratitude, and then we just like put our head in the

Karen Kenney: 00:17:43

sand, and we don't do the work that needs to be done. I'm not

Karen Kenney: 00:17:45

saying that, but we also won't get there if we're always

Karen Kenney: 00:17:50

exhausted, if we're always miserable, if we're always

Karen Kenney: 00:17:53

feeling hopeless and helpless, right? Change is not going to

Karen Kenney: 00:17:56

come if we have no energy right to enact the change to become

Karen Kenney: 00:18:01

the change to be in the world is change to help change happen by

Karen Kenney: 00:18:06

the way we vote, by the people we put in office, like all those

Karen Kenney: 00:18:09

things we do need some energy, some joy, some mojo, you know

Karen Kenney: 00:18:13

what I mean. And so I do think that just having a regular old

Karen Kenney: 00:18:16

gratitude practice is fantastic, and it's amazing, but sometimes

Karen Kenney: 00:18:21

we need to, like, you know, we need to shake it up a little

Karen Kenney: 00:18:23

bit, we need to shake the salad, we need to make a little

Karen Kenney: 00:18:25

gratitude salad, sprinkle in some things that maybe normally

Karen Kenney: 00:18:30

wouldn't occur to you, right? So we often think of, like, a

Karen Kenney: 00:18:35

people, or I'm grateful for this, I'm grateful for my

Karen Kenney: 00:18:38

health, yes, but let's get more specific. Let's get more

Karen Kenney: 00:18:42

curious, right? Like, right now, as I'm talking to you, I can

Karen Kenney: 00:18:45

hear the call, because I live in the woods, I can hear the call

Karen Kenney: 00:18:47

of like all these different birds right now, and I just

Karen Kenney: 00:18:50

think, like, oh my god, that's so cool, right? And there's

Karen Kenney: 00:18:54

people that I follow online who are incredible photographers of

Karen Kenney: 00:18:58

wildlife, and there's one guy named Marty Woodward, and Marty

Karen Kenney: 00:19:03

is known really for his work, is like marketing and helping

Karen Kenney: 00:19:08

people grow their business, but on the side he photographs

Karen Kenney: 00:19:11

birds, and he just told this incredible story about how he

Karen Kenney: 00:19:16

drove 800 miles to try to find this one bird, and when he went

Karen Kenney: 00:19:20

to take the picture of the bird, he hit the video button instead,

Karen Kenney: 00:19:24

so we didn't capture what he calls the shot, but he captured

Karen Kenney: 00:19:28

this amazing video of this multi-colored, beautiful,

Karen Kenney: 00:19:32

gorgeous bird, and he shared it with us, and I just thought, ah,

Karen Kenney: 00:19:36

I'm so grateful for Mahdi for sharing that, you know, so this

Karen Kenney: 00:19:40

is what I'm saying, you guys. There's so much to look around

Karen Kenney: 00:19:43

and be discouraged by, and be disappointed by, and be scared

Karen Kenney: 00:19:47

of, right? There's so much horror and brutality and

Karen Kenney: 00:19:50

violence and unfairness and racism, and you know, sex

Karen Kenney: 00:19:54

trafficking and child abuse. I mean, look at humans have been

Karen Kenney: 00:19:58

doing horrendous. Awful things for 1000s of years, but there

Karen Kenney: 00:20:02

have also been people out there doing amazing things, and if we

Karen Kenney: 00:20:06

let our brain and this negativity bias like take over,

Karen Kenney: 00:20:09

we're in big trouble. So we need the little librarians in our

Karen Kenney: 00:20:13

head to sprinkle in like some goodies into our gratitude salad

Karen Kenney: 00:20:17

once in a while. So that's all I wanted to share with you. I go

Karen Kenney: 00:20:20

out for my run now, but while it was fresh on my mind, I was

Karen Kenney: 00:20:23

like, I don't know, maybe other people, maybe other people want

Karen Kenney: 00:20:26

to make a little gratitude salad of their own, and they need that

Karen Kenney: 00:20:29

little reminder, you know, to take a look around at the world,

Karen Kenney: 00:20:32

take a look around at the immediate world, and then like

Karen Kenney: 00:20:35

span out, right, like zoom out, and really take a good ganda,

Karen Kenney: 00:20:39

take a look around, there's some incredible people out there.

Karen Kenney: 00:20:42

There's some incredible humans doing really powerful and

Karen Kenney: 00:20:45

beautiful things in the world, very talented things, writing

Karen Kenney: 00:20:48

incredible stories and books, and making music and artwork,

Karen Kenney: 00:20:52

and loving each other, and serving their communities, and

Karen Kenney: 00:20:55

serving their neighbors, and they're getting out there, and

Karen Kenney: 00:20:57

they're activists, and whatever. There's some incredible,

Karen Kenney: 00:21:01

gorgeous animals. I mean, Mother Nature is just wild. Like, if

Karen Kenney: 00:21:06

you just spend a little time, like looking around at certain

Karen Kenney: 00:21:09

even leaves, like sometimes you just look at a leaf and you

Karen Kenney: 00:21:11

think, oh my god, like, how does nature know how to do this and

Karen Kenney: 00:21:15

create these things? You know, it's so incredible. And there

Karen Kenney: 00:21:18

have been places and things that we have been gifted, and you

Karen Kenney: 00:21:22

know it's so easy to just walk by things every day, and you

Karen Kenney: 00:21:26

kind of stop seeing them, and this happens in marriages, it

Karen Kenney: 00:21:29

happens in relationships, partnerships, it happens with,

Karen Kenney: 00:21:33

you know, your pets, and you know, we just start to things

Karen Kenney: 00:21:35

just start to get blurry, so I want to say, like, lean in real

Karen Kenney: 00:21:39

close to your life, look at these things, feel these

Karen Kenney: 00:21:42

feelings, think about stories and memories, and really let

Karen Kenney: 00:21:46

yourself feel the full depth of them. Let your hat just light

Karen Kenney: 00:21:51

up, and, man, dive into that delicious gratitude salad. And

Karen Kenney: 00:21:55

if you make a gratitude salad, I would love to hear about it.

Karen Kenney: 00:21:59

Seriously, send up a flare, write to me. Send me a message

Karen Kenney: 00:22:01

or a note. Go to my website, my contact page. Send me a little

Karen Kenney: 00:22:05

something. I would love to hear what's in your gratitude salad

Karen Kenney: 00:22:07

for today. You guys are the topping. You guys are the

Karen Kenney: 00:22:11

sprinkles on my gratitude salad today. So, thank you every week.

Karen Kenney: 00:22:15

Thank you every week for tuning in for new listeners. I know I

Karen Kenney: 00:22:18

have some new listeners, Jocelyn and David, I'm very excited

Karen Kenney: 00:22:21

about that, and every once in a while I hear from somebody who

Karen Kenney: 00:22:25

said, "Hey, I listen to your show, and I'm always blown away.

Karen Kenney: 00:22:27

I'm like, "You do, so it really does mean a lot to me. So, thank

Karen Kenney: 00:22:32

you for spending some time with me. I hope you have a fantastic

Karen Kenney: 00:22:35

day, and, like I said, if you're interested in Write Club or

Karen Kenney: 00:22:39

joining the Nest, or anything I do, you can find out everything

Karen Kenney: 00:22:42

on Karen kenney.com and if you want, whatever is happening, new

Karen Kenney: 00:22:46

things that I'm creating, workshops and stuff like that,

Karen Kenney: 00:22:49

the best ways to get on my mailing list, right? I usually

Karen Kenney: 00:22:52

send out one newsletter a week, sometimes you'll hear from me

Karen Kenney: 00:22:56

twice if I'm letting you know about a class or a workshop or

Karen Kenney: 00:22:59

something wicked fun that's happening, and you just go to

Karen Kenney: 00:23:02

Karen kenney.com/sign up, that's how you get on that sucker, and

Karen Kenney: 00:23:06

I would love to have you join us. So, thank you for being a

Karen Kenney: 00:23:08

part of my podcast community. Have a fantastic rest of your

Karen Kenney: 00:23:11

day, and like I said, I hope you make a little gratitude salad

Karen Kenney: 00:23:14

today. Okay, wherever you go, may you leave yourself and the

Karen Kenney: 00:23:17

animals and the people in the places and the environment

Karen Kenney: 00:23:22

better than how you found it. Wherever you go, may you and

Karen Kenney: 00:23:26

your energy, your presence, your love, and your attitude of

Karen Kenney: 00:23:29

gratitude, your little gratitude salad be a blessing. Bye. Hey,

Karen Kenney: 00:23:36

thanks so much for listening to the show. I really love spending

Karen Kenney: 00:23:39

some time together. Now, if you dig the show or know someone

Karen Kenney: 00:23:42

that could benefit from this episode, please share it with

Karen Kenney: 00:23:46

them and help me to spread the good word and the love. And if

Karen Kenney: 00:23:49

you want to be in the know about all of my upcoming shenanigans,

Karen Kenney: 00:23:53

head on over to Karen kenney.com/sign up and join my

Karen Kenney: 00:23:58

list. It'll be wicked fun to stay in touch. Bye bye.