Wake Up Grateful: The Transformative Practice of Taking Nothing for Granted

The subtitle, “The Transformative Practice of Taking Nothing for Granted” is reason alone to read this book. It is organized into two parts:

Part 1: From Gratitude to Grateful Living explains the principles of grateful living. This also includes the five guiding principles.

Part 2: Grateful Living in the Real World focuses on how to bring grateful living into your life.

The author talks about being diagnosed with cancer at age 33 and how important it was for her to be grateful every day. As time went on and life seemed to turn into routine, gratitude took a backseat until she met Brother David. He survived World War II and tells about his experience in bomb shelters waiting for the end to come. Kristi took a job as Executive Director for A Network for Grateful Living and found Brother David was part of the interview process. It was serendipity.

The depth of the writing is wonderful and really makes you reflect. Because the author includes her own experience makes the book feel more personal. She describes her illness and “fever of unknown origin” diagnosis (which I have been given too) and the extensive testing to her ultimate diagnosis. Her message is to be grateful for each moment and don’t take anything for granted. Last year I lost a friend to lung cancer. It was aggressive and she was gone within a year of diagnosis. I traveled to visit her twice during that year and know how grateful I was to spend the time with her.

The book is written so that a reader can open it to any page and receive a little wisdom in the form of a quote or question. The formula the author uses is from Brother David’s practice of Stop, Look, Go. This is a way to be alert and notice things happening around you. I was unaware there was the difference between gratitude and gratefulness. The definitions make the difference so clear. I highly recommend this book to everyone.