Toni Reece: Hi there. This is Toni Reece, and welcome to the Get Inspired! Project for Berks County Living Magazine. This is a very special edition of the Get Inspired! Project, because we’re going to be talking about gratitude. It is the Thanksgiving Edition. I have two very special guests with me, so hold on – we don’t know how this is going to go! With Robyn, we have an idea. Hi, Robyn! Introduce yourself to your Get Inspired! Project fans.
Robyn Jones: Hi, I’m Robyn Jones. I’m the publisher of Berks County Living. We’re thrilled that Toni, you do this for us each week.
Toni: Thank you.
Robyn: It’s fun to be on the very special edition.
Toni: This is so special. And then we have Brad Weisman. Brad, do you want to introduce yourself?
Brad: Yes. Hi, I’m Brad Weisman. I am a Realtor with Coldwell Banker and also do “Here’s What’s Happening” with you fine young ladies.
Toni: We are fine young ladies.
Brad: Yes. Fine young ladies. I usually don’t say that, but that’s alright.
Robyn: I like the use of the word “young.”
Brad: You like the young part?
Toni: There you go! We’re going to be talking about gratitude, and the way the Get Inspired! Project goes is that we have to answer the same questions, but we’re just going to be talking, instead of inspiration, about gratitude. Let’s start with, what does gratitude mean to you? Who wants to start?
Brad: I think gratitude is, for me, having the ability to really step back and look at what’s going right in your life, what people are doing for you in your life, and people that are showing up on your behalf in the best way they possibly can. I like to be thankful for that. That to me is what gratitude is. I think a lot of time actually we could be more grateful than we are. Especially the closer somebody is to you, the less gratitude they usually get. I can think about my wife. She does so much for me and our daughter, and how many times do we say “thanks” for those things that she does? Not enough. That’s gratitude.
Toni: Okay, that’s what gratitude means to you. How about you, Robyn?
Robyn: I think that’s a good explanation, and it’s sort of different. I never really thought of it in those terms before. I think it’s like a feeling of thankfulness and a feeling of appreciating others and being appreciated yourself. I think it goes both ways a bit, but I totally agree with Brad that sometimes the people you need to thank the most who do the most for you sometimes often get missed, and that’s a shame.
Toni: It is.
Brad: I think it’s just human nature in a way for some reason. I don’t know why.
Toni: I call that the “invisible obvious.”
Brad: There you go.
Toni: I’m going to answer the questions, too, on this particular interview. I think for me what gratitude means is actually when I can feel it. You can feel when you’re grateful. It’s such a deep feeling of “Wow! I so appreciate what I have, what you’ve done, what I see,” and I just think it’s an overwhelming presence of “thank you.”
Brad: It puts a smile on your face, too.
Toni: It does.
Robyn: It’s a sense of relief sometimes, too.
Brad: Yes.
Toni: Yes. You just feel it. It’s a deep, deep sense of gratitude for so many things. How do you put how you describe gratitude into practice? How do you put being grateful into practice?
Brad: What’s funny is it is practice. It’s nothing you ever master as far as I’m concerned, because like I just said to you, I need to work on that at times with those closest to me.
How do you put it to practice? I think you just do the best you can every day like you do with everything else, and really sit back and look at what somebody’s doing for you or how people are showing up in your life and on your behalf.
It’s like a parent. Your parents do so much for you that you can't even imagine until you’re a parent. It’s amazing the gratitude that I have for my parents now, and my in-laws. It’s incredible because of having a daughter. It really is amazing. I think, “Oh my gosh – my parents did all of this for me? I never realized they did all of this for me!” This whole world just happened, I thought, you know what I mean?
Toni: Absolutely right.
Brad: This whole world just happened – but there were dirty diapers on me at one point. And maybe someday there will be again, who knows? Then you have to give gratitude to the people that are taking care of you then, too.
Toni: Absolutely.
Brad: There’s gratitude throughout your whole life. I think it’s constant practice. You’re never perfect at being able to thank.
Toni: How about you, Robyn?
Robyn: You really have to show your appreciation. Sometimes it’s through your words, and other times it’s through your actions, but I think that’s key. You really have to work on it and make sure that the people understand just how much it meant to you to have their impact.
Toni: When you are so grateful, can you give an example of when you’ve put that into practice?
Robyn: I know I often carry on, try to tell the people. “Oh my gosh, this means so much to me! You helped me out so much. I really appreciate it.” I ramble and go on and on, but it’s heartfelt. I really mean it, but I sometimes get all wound up in the excitement of it. I think the people realize, “Okay, calm down, I did it to help you.”
Brad: Right – but that’s passion, though, for being thankful. It’s like anything. A word is nothing unless there’s passion behind it. I think when you’re saying “thank you” to somebody, it better have some passion behind it, or it’s just, “thank you.” What would you rather have? Or, “Thanks! That was great! Thanks so much!” That to me is going to get you the real gratitude.
Toni: It’s how you receive as well as how you deliver.
Brad: Absolutely.
Toni: I think how I recall how I put gratitude into practice is the work that I do.
Robyn: That’s true.
Toni: I think that so many people have been so kind to me over the years, and I see how people who have nothing will try to do something for you; that to be able to show my gratitude is to pay that forward to other people. If I can do or present a platform or help tell somebody’s story or just sit and actually listen to somebody, that’s a way to pay that forward for them, because I’m so grateful for what’s been done for me. That’s how I try, at least. Not always perfect, but I try to do that.
Brad: Well, you said, “put into practice.”
Toni: Exactly.
Brad: We always have to remember, practice means you keep doing it. You’re never done.
Toni: There was a question that was put to me years ago, and it said, “If you’re trying to find your purpose and what you’re supposed to do for your life …” and since we’re talking about gratitude, and I would encourage anyone listening to this interview to do the same – think about what people thank you for.
Brad: Interesting.
Toni: What do people thank you for? As you think about that and really give that some heavy duty thinking, you’ll find a common theme, and that common theme of what people thank you for is what you’re really, really good at – and that’s what your purpose is.
Brad: That is really good. You know, Toni, sometimes you pull them out, I have to say.
Toni: How about that?
Brad: That is a really good thing to think about. I love that.
Toni: What do people thank you for?
Brad: I’m starting to think, “Nobody thanks me for anything.”
Toni: Well, that’s why your floundering!
Brad: I’m so lost!
Toni: Last question for this special edition of the Get Inspired! Project. What are you the most grateful for? Robyn?
Robyn: I think I’m the most grateful for my family, but more specifically how I was raised, and the life lessons my parents taught me, and how to try to give back and be the person who offers to help with things, and the idea of right from wrong. It’s very natural for me to want to help someone else and not help myself, but I think that came from both my parents. I’m both of them combined, which is interesting to me. I’m so much like my mom, but I’m so much like my dad was, too.
Toni: Wow.
Brad: Interesting.
Robyn: That really made me, me. I think I’m very grateful for that.
Toni: That’s amazing.
Brad: They did a great job.
Toni: They did, because you’re a very cool person.
Brad: Very.
Toni: Brad, what are you the most grateful for?
Brad: My gratitude has changed because after we had Catherine two-and-a-half years ago, I am so grateful for a healthy daughter and just a great kid. My wife, obviously, because she’s amazing, and family, like you said. I had the same kind of thing. Parents were just amazing. Helped you make the right choices in life and be who I am today. That’s where my gratitude goes.
Toni: I would have to agree with both of you. I think for me, though, deep, deep, deep for me is I am so eternally grateful that I have a very kind husband and two really cool sons. They’re just nice people. They’re a little crazy.
Brad: Wonder where they get that from?
Toni: They’re very kind people, and I’m incredibly grateful for that.
Brad: The common bond there.
Toni: Yes.
Brad: It’s interesting. That’s why family structure is so important, it really is, because I think it really helps guide everybody. No matter how you get raised, there’s choices in your life that you make throughout your life, and you’re still making choices always, but those choices are usually grounded or there’s a foundation of how you make choices by the way you were raised. When you’re making a major choice in your life, you go back and say, “How was I raised? What are my morals? This is the right thing to do,” and you move forward. I think it’s so cool. Family is very, very important.
Toni: Family doesn’t mean your traditional family, either. It’s whatever your definition of family is and what that picture looks like.
Brad: It doesn’t mean it’s blood.
Toni: Absolutely. Okay, guys, this was a really cool edition of the Get Inspired! Project. Until next time …
