Live Course – Stop.Look.Go: Bring Gratefulness to Life

“Moment by moment, life is offering you gift after gift. But unless you stop, you will rush right by that gift; unless you look, you will miss it; and only if you go and do something with it can you fully avail yourself of that gift.”
— Br. David Steindl-Rast, from his foreword to Wake Up Grateful by Kristi Nelson

Please join us beginning May 3 for our brand new, live online course!

Stop.Look.Go: Bring Gratefulness to Life promises an enlivening six-week exploration of the essential grateful living practice that enhances our ability to be present, expands our perspective, and awakens us to possibility. The dynamic live sessions center on powerful teachings from Kristi Nelson’s book Wake Up Grateful, with deep roots in Brother David Steindl-Rast’s Stop.Look.Go practice. While this core practice of grateful living is timeless in its capacity to sustain, guide, and awaken us to the gift of life, it offers particularly powerful support during times of uncertainty and distress. Whether new to grateful living or a longtime practitioner, this course opens and deepens pathways to living a wholehearted, fulfilling, and joyful life!

Special Guests joining us:

Jack Kornfield is an author, Buddhist practitioner, Spirit Rock Meditation Center founding teacher, and one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. Over the years, Jack has taught in centers and universities worldwide, led International Buddhist Teacher meetings, and worked with many of the great teachers of our time. His books have been translated into 20 languages and sold more than a million copies.

Ross Gay is the author of four books of poetry: Against Which; Bringing the Shovel Down; Be Holding; and Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, winner of the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2016 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. He is also the author of a collection of essays, The Book of Delights, which was released by Algonquin Books in 2019. He has received fellowships from Cave Canem, the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, and the Guggenheim Foundation. Ross teaches at Indiana University.

Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer co-hosts Emerging Form podcast on creative process, Secret Agents of Change (a surreptitious kindness cabal) and Soul Writers Circle. Her poetry has appeared on A Prairie Home Companion, PBS News Hour, O Magazine, American Life in Poetry, Carnegie Hall stage, river rocks, and her daily poetry blog, A Hundred Falling Veils. Her most recent collection, Hush, won the Halcyon Prize. Naked for Tea was a finalist for the Able Muse Book Award. One-word mantra: Adjust.

The Most Rev. Michael Bruce Curry is the 27th presiding bishop and primate of The Episcopal Church. Throughout his ministry, Bishop Curry has been a prophetic leader, particularly in the areas of racial reconciliation, climate change, evangelism, immigration policy, and marriage equality. Bishop Curry is the author of five books including Love is the Way: Holding on to Hope in Troubled Times and The Power of Love: Sermons, Reflections & Wisdom to Uplift and Inspire. He is a regular guest on national and international media outlets.

Together we’ll explore these questions: 

• How can we deepen our capacity to be fully present to our daily lives, to those around us, and to the realities of our global community?
• What helps us notice the available opportunities for living with a grateful heart, even when causes for gratitude feel beyond reach?
• How do we continually enrich our perspective so that we can relish the poignancy and blessing of being alive, not only when things are going well but also when they’re challenging? 
• How do we open ourselves to possibility and tune in to what’s calling for our care, attention, or action? And how will we embody grateful living in the world?  

The course includes:

• Six live sessions (75 minutes); recordings become available to course members the following day
• Six toolkits of resources – essays, poetry, music, video, and practices – that deepen the week’s teachings and invite reflection and practice
• A hosted virtual community space for sharing insights and learning
• Special guests who will share their wisdom and teaching, including Jack Kornfield, Ross Gay, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, and Michael B. Curry.

Although not required, we recommend having a copy of Wake Up Grateful: The Transformative Practice of Taking Nothing for Granted by Kristi Nelson. We will turn to the book’s rich collection of reflections, practices, and poetry throughout the six weeks.

This is the second live course in our Wake Up Grateful series, taught by Kristi Nelson and hosted by Sheryl Chard. The first course focused on five principles of grateful living; it is not necessary to take the courses in a particular order. Stop.Look.Go: Bring Gratefulness to Life is designed for anyone wishing to live life with greater presence, appreciation, resilience, and joy. We hope you’ll join us!

NOTE: Thank you for your interest. Registration for this course is now closed. If you would like to learn about future courses and  offerings, please subscribe to our monthly newsletter.

Course Details

Dates for Live Sessions

• Tuesdays, May 3 – June 7, 2022
• 7:00-8:15 p.m., EDT, on Zoom

Participation & Community

• Our learning platform provides a hosted online space for shared reflection, learning, and inspiration among participants, course leaders, and the Grateful Living team. While we hope that everyone will be able to join all of the live sessions, we know this is not always possible, nor is it a requirement. As mentioned above, all sessions will be recorded and will be made available to course participants the following day to enjoy at any time, and at their leisure. 

Registration

• Registration will be open through Thursday, April 28, 2022.
• On Friday, April 29, all registrants will receive a digital welcome packet and login information for our learning platform. The online platform is where you will be able to find all course information and opportunities for interaction — Zoom links, weekly toolkits, and participant reflections. Rest assured that you will also receive a weekly email with all necessary information throughout the course.
• The six-session course is offered on a sliding scale of $60 – $150. Registration payment options now also include PayPal and Venmo. 
  • For contributions of $120 or more, you may choose to receive our brand new Gratitude Cards, a deck of 100+ questions that inspire the perspective and possibilities of grateful living. (NOTE: the cards are now on back-order and the shipment is suffering supply chain issues so will not be mailed out till late June, 2022)
  • For contributions of $150, you may choose to receive the deck of cards as well as an inscribed copy of Wake Up Grateful. (Books will be mailed within the week, cards will be sent separately, later)
• All registration fees are fully tax-deductible and underwrite this course and our many free programs. If $60 is not feasible for you, please reach out to us at [email protected] so that we can ensure that all who are interested in this learning experience are able to participate.

NOTE: Thank you for your interest. Registration for this course is now closed. If you would like to learn about future courses and offerings, please subscribe to our monthly newsletter.

“To be present to your life as it unfolds, to occupy each moment with a grateful heart, and to notice with curiosity what is happening inside and around you – all this delivers the possibility of contentment and joy. And all of it is facilitated by practice.” — Kristi Nelson, Wake up Grateful

Reviews from participants in our first live course, Wake Up Grateful: Open Your Heart to Life…

• “This course has been transformative for me.” — B.A.
• “This has been an extraordinary course, [the teachers] so authentic, the materials have been more than excellent, the organization, the technology outstanding! Blessings and thanks from my heart.” — M.F.G.
• “Thank you so much for this course – incredibly well designed and delivered, and aesthetically beautiful. The flow of teachings and exercises provided a safe and sensitive intellectual and emotional arc for each week. The toolkits were excellent, [the teachers] wonderful educators, and the wisdom they shared will provide deeper and deeper levels of learning as time goes on.” — J.S.