Gratitude

Finding Gratitude When Hope Feels Hard
This year has challenged one of my most deeply held beliefs: that at our core, people are inherently good. As a mediator, I see the best and worst in people—sometimes within the same conversation, even within the same breath. I’ve long held onto the idea that if we can just slow down and listen to understand each other, something human and decent will emerge.

But this year… that belief has been shaken. Maybe it needed to be. I’m confronting a truth that is painful to acknowledge: not all people choose goodness. Some harm others without remorse. Some go through the motions of conflict resolution but have no real intention to change or to understand the pain they’ve caused.

And yet—my work depends on hope. It depends on the belief that people can shift, that insight is possible, that connection can be rebuilt. When that belief wavers, I have to find another anchor. For me, that anchor has been Gratitude.

Not the passive kind we sometimes mention around a holiday table, but an intentional, daily practice. A discipline. A way of looking for the light when the darker parts of humanity feel too close. Each day, I look for three things:

1. One thing that made me happy.
2. One thing someone did that was kind to me.
3. One thing I did that was kind for someone else.

Simple. Clear. Repeatable. And it has changed everything.

Today, I felt joy when my son set a coffee date with me. Someone at the gym paused to hold the door. And I helped a woman who was confused about a business relocation. Small moments. Easy to overlook. But intentionally noticing them shifts something inside me—away from cynicism, toward perspective, toward grace.

Gratitude doesn’t erase the hard things I see. It doesn’t deny the reality that some people choose harmful paths, abuse power. But it does remind me that goodness still exists—in gestures, in connection, in the quiet moments of care that ripple outward.

And for now, that is enough to keep me grounded, hopeful, and human.