After watching this video, take a few minutes to visit this webpage. After familiarizing yourself with the site, make a list of things that you are thankful for.
Now, pick three of those things that you have used to serve others. List those below.
Describe how this idea of "being grateful" and "serving others" is central to the work that you've done to make your place better.
Responses to this prompt are due at the beginning of Adventure Five.
More about Brother Steindl-Rast (the speaker in the video):
Steindl-Rast was born and raised in Vienna, Austria. He received his MA degree from the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts and his Ph.D. in experimental psychology from the University of Vienna (1952). He emigrated to the United States in the same year and became a Benedictine monk in 1953 at Mt. Saviour Monastery in Pine City, New York, a newly founded Benedictine community. With permission of his abbot, Damasus Winzen, in 1966 he was officially delegated to pursue Buddhist-Christian dialogue and began to study Zen with masters Haku'un Yasutani, Soen Nakagawa, Shunryu Suzuki and Eido Tai Shimano.
He co-founded the Center for Spiritual Studies with Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu and Sufi teachers and is a member of the Lindisfarne Association. His writings include Gratefulness, the Heart of Prayer, The Music of Silence (with Sharon Lebell), Words of Common Sense and Belonging to the Universe (co-authored with Fritjof Capra). He also co-founded A Network for Grateful Living, an organization dedicated to gratefulness as a transformative influence for individuals and society.
My pets, building/handywork skills, and intelligence. Being grateful is necessary to making places better because if I am grateful and other people see that, they too will be grateful when they receive things or services. This is one small step that will help to lead to a better place where I am. Serving others is also necessary to making a better place by making sure everyone is doing okay. This includes community service, or other types of service. This is even included if it is just spending time with someone.
ReplyDeleteI am good at listening and understanding people's problems when they present them to me. I try to think of any and all possible solutions that would work for them.
ReplyDeleteI am an extremely logical thinker but I do understand emotions well enough so I feel as if I can present problems and solutions to people who need help and can take the human and logical sides both into account.
In a physical sense at any job I work at I am relatively strong and in shape so when ever I am given a physically challenging job I feel like I do an above average job of completing the task. A lot of volunteer jobs are manual labor in nature so this is a way to service people.
I am thankful for my family, friends, ability to have a higher education, my second chance in life, and the type of home life I have. Because of these things I am thankful for I try to pass on happiness to others that I interact with. After I went through the trauma of my accident it made me learn not to take things in life for granted so I try to show others that I appreciate them. I am grateful for the life I have and I want others to feel that kind of happiness and gratefulness.
ReplyDeleteI am thankful for my ability to read ad write so that I can learn, my family, and my friends. With all the things that I am grateful for and my ability to serve others has helped me make the world a better place by being able to expand my knowledge of several topics and share it with others, to help my family and care for them, and for friends I have learned how to communicate and work with others. All of these things will help me in the "real world" to make it a better place and help many people world wide.
ReplyDeleteI am grateful for my friends, my parents, and my education. Being grateful is very important, especially when it comes to service. When you are grateful, you understand that most people are deprived of what you have and so you do what you can to make a better place for them. An example would be spending time at a homeless shelter to show your appreciation for your home and family. It is one thing to be grateful for what you have, but it is another thing to show that appreciation by serving others.
ReplyDeleteI am thankful for my family and the life I have been given, I am also thankful for the people that have influenced my life for the better. Because of these things I am thankful for I try to help others to see that life is special and to be happy with the live you are given. I am grateful that I am given the chance to serve others and help others to see how great this life can be and to live everyday to the fullest and embrace happiness. I am grateful that I can use my abilities to make the life I live and the lives of others better by serving them. I use my talents and abilities to spread happiness to others at the best of my ability.
ReplyDeleteI am grateful for my family, my friends, and my intelligence. Because of these three things, I can use my good fortune and dwell happiness on to other people. My gratefulness for life in general has given me an attitude in which I believe I need to be humble and give back to others. I give back to the community through my service to others. Knowing that I have the ability to serve others and give back because I am grateful gives me a better place for myself to live in.
ReplyDeleteI am grateful for my family, my friends, and my faith. I constantly strive everyday to make my family proud of who I am and the women I am growing up to be. I work hard to get the best grades possible, achieve my goals, and create a good reputation that accompanies my name because I want my parents to look at me and feel a great deal of satisfaction in the way that they raised me and all the morals that have taught me.
ReplyDeleteI strive to be the best possible friend to all my friends. I listen when they need someone to talk to, and I talk when they need some advice. I'm always available for my friends when they need someone to hangout with or need help getting through a tough time. I want them to know that I will always be here for them whenever they need me.
I am very grateful for my faith because it has gotten me through the most trying times in my life. I constantly use my religion as a way to serve others and show them the great things in life. This past summer I went on a mission trip to a rural town in Tennessee where I spent a week fixing houses that belonged to families struggling with poverty. It was a very rewarding trip because I got to help people and restore the hope and faith in a community that was falling apart.
I am thankful for my family, friends and life. When volunteering at a hospital you can find yourself in any kind of situation. Sometimes patients are by themselves, without a family or friend to come visit and support them as they recover in the hospital. Sometimes people are struggling to live, some with life expectancies of only a few years, or unable to afford the healthcare they are receiving. It puts into perspective how blessed and grateful I am to have what I have.
ReplyDeleteI am very appreciate for my family and friends, for they support me and have given me a good foundation on which I can grow upon. I am also very grateful for the numerous opportunities that I have been given, my human rights, and my faith each of which have helped me to serve others. The basic human rights of shelter, food, healthcare, freedom, and education have all been fulfilled for me, as a result I can help others to have these essential needs fulfilled as every person deserves. The opportunities that I have been given to learn and grow as a person help me serve others to the best of my ability. My faith has given me a platform on which to grow as a person just as my family and friends have, but it has also helped to guide me especially in difficult situations.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of being grateful and serving others is central to the work that I have done to make my place, my community, better. Being a volunteer at Good Samaritan hospital reminds me that I am a part of a team and that I need to use the gifts and talents that I have to serve others. Whenever I am helping others at my place I am reminded to be grateful for not only my good health, but also the opportunity to use my knowledge and time to help others. Whenever I see a person come in to visit their loved one I am reminded how grateful I am for my family and friends and if I ever see a person alone receiving treatment because their family and friends cannot be there then I am thankful that I am able to help them and make them more comfortable. I am grateful that I have the ability and can take time to help patients and their families. Being grateful and serving others is central to working to make my community better.
As per usual, I am extremely grateful for my family and my friends. I don't think I could stay sane without them as they keep me grounded but are always willing to have fun with me. I am also thankful for my health and the opportunities I have been given in my life. Because of my parents and my friends, I have been given so many chances to explore the world and make a difference and it has given me an appreciation for my life. I still have my own struggles but I am able to put them in perspective and realize that I have it a lot better than many other people and that I can use my gifts and talents to help those who are not in my position. I think that this self-awareness lead me to my goals of going to college and becoming someone who can help out others who need it. In this way, I believe that I can help to make my community better just through the simple act of being grateful.
ReplyDeleteI am thankful for my family, friends, and education. My family has effected my life in many ways. Family has shown me the importance of morals, respecting and helping others, and many other important things. My friends have taught me how to socialize and make connections that will benefit me in the future. My education has opened doors for me in the future, and helps me expand my knowledge. All together, family, friends, and education have shown me the importance of community service. If it were not for these, I believe I would not have the same community service experiences I have today.
ReplyDeleteI am grateful for my family and friends. They have made me who I am today. They have given me good morals, told me to respect others and most importantly had given me good education. My friends have taught me to be sociable and open,which helps me a lot when it comes to speaking up. The idea of being grateful and serving others is central to the work that I have done to make my place, my community, better. Due to these, I have learnt to be grateful about everything, which helps me a lot in everyday life.
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