SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine — 25 years ago, a story caught Katie Bloom’s attention and changed the course of her life. At that moment, she became a firm believer in the power of gratitude. She found that offering gratitude brought more happiness in to her life. As a counselor and psychotherapist, she wants to help parents and their kids practice gratitude as well. Now, she’s written a book for children hoping to help them open their eyes to all the goodness in their world.
It happened like this - finding herself in a bookstore, Katie opened a book to what she describes as a wonderful story about gratitude. "And I really connected to it. And it really was about noticing what you have vs. what you don’t have – and then, how the world responds to that – how the universe, how God, whatever you want to call it, responds to that. And so I just started randomly saying thank you for everything. Thank you for the gas that I DO have in my car. Thank you for my rent money."
That practice was impactful. "What happens with gratitude is there are two aspects of it. There’s the psychological and then there is the spiritual. The psychological is that your eyes become wider. And your perspective changes. I believe, the spiritual aspect of it is that you are creating a connection, with something bigger than yourself. That’s really where the book comes in. The connection between this little girl, and God, universe, higher power, whatever you want to call it."
Practicing gratitude in 'The Thank You Game'
She was inspired to write “The Thank You Game” after she had created a gratitude journal for some of her clients – women in recovery – and they wanted the same sort of journal for their own children. That idea planted a seed for the children’s book – less a journal, more of a game between reader and text.
The little girl in the story is Alex. Like a lot of kids, Alex got her feelings hurt and felt left out when she wasn’t invited to a birthday party. Her Mom suggests they play a game, saying thank you for all that Alex can see, and feel, ‘everything you would feel sad about if it went away.”
"Alex is supposed to name things she’s grateful for thankful for and then her thank you is sent up out in to the trees and the wind and to God and all the angels - and God and all the angels laugh with joy – and smile goodness down on Alex and then Alex feels happy - -so I guess I just wanted to have this kind of back and forth," says the author.
We follow Alex through her day in a series of vignettes, each presenting Alex with hard feelings like frustration or sadness … and challenging her – and the reader – to find things to be grateful for. "All of a sudden your eyes are wide open and you’re seeing things you might not have seen before.'
As for parents who are hoping to instill a sense of gratitude in their kids, Katie offers these suggestions. "I always begin with validating and naming what kids might be feeling first. We gotta start with the now – how is it you feel right now? It’s scary. Kids are probably feeling the exact same way that their parents are feeling. Uncertainty, and sad that they can’t see their other friends and scared and ‘am I gonna go back to school?’'
She urges parents to validate the feelings that their kids might be experiencing, all the while modeling gratitude in their own life. Katie refers to the work of the Benedictine monk, Brother David Steindl-Rast, and concludes the book with one of his quotations. Here she is sharing more of his work:
"What I really wanted is that this book can be read over and over because the child will then be really excited to find something they didn’t’ see the last time – and that is what gratitude is all about." says Katie.
Veronica Rose Jones is the illustrator of the book and a recent Maine College of Art graduate. You can see the video of The Thank You Game book here. The book is available locally (click here) and you can learn more about Katie Bloom here.