Gratitude Revealed – [FREE!] Discover a Life of Connection and Joy [FULL LENGTH MOVIE]

From the acclaimed director of Fantastic Fungi comes Gratitude Revealed, which premiered for FREE on the Moving Art YouTube Channel.

Gratitude Revealed is a remarkable cinematic documentary that has been forty years in the making.

The film is a transformational cinematic experience aimed at teaching us how to lead a more meaningful life filled with gratitude.

Through intimate interviews with everyday people, thought leaders, and personalities, Schwartzberg shows how gratitude is a proven path to overcoming the disconnection we often feel in our lives.

Gratitude can help us reconnect with ourselves, our planet, and each other.

If you yearn for deeper connections and seek personal transformation, then Louie has made Gratitude Revealed just for you.

[Luisah] Real gratitude don’t come from what you got materially. [Jay] Everything is a gift. [Rupert] I am alive. I have a loving wife, two great kids. I live in a house with a roof that doesn’t leak. All these things are things for which I feel grateful. [inspiring music]

[Norman] We’re on two journeys. We’re on a horizontal journey and we’re on a vertical journey. The horizontal journey is I’ve studied this, I’m studying that, I’m learning more as life goes on. The vertical journey is into oneself and into the meaning of being. That is the longer, I find… [chuckles]

…and perhaps more rewarding journey. [Louie] I love making tea with lemon. Reminds me of my mom and dad. They were both Holocaust survivors. My mom actually survived six years in Auschwitz, which is pretty remarkable. They came to America, journeying across the Atlantic, where I was conceived, and born in Brooklyn,

And growing up in their home, I learned a lot about gratitude. They appreciated all the little things in life, the blessings that came their way. Most of all, the miracle of being able to have children. I’ve spent the last 40 years filming. I’m always looking for people who’ve overcome adversity yet still have…

…a lot of hope, optimism, and resilience in their lives. Those are the stories I love to tell. [sighs in contentment] [David] I grew up during the war years in Austria, That was a time when we were very poor. In fact, there were days when we thought we’d starve to death.

And when you have very little you are very grateful for what little you do have. Do you think this is just another day in your life? It’s not just another day. It’s the one day that is given to you, today. [dog whines playfully] [sheep bleats] [David] And it’s given to you.

It’s a gift. It’s the only gift that you have right now, and the only appropriate response is gratefulness. [applause] [David] The main virtue that I would see in grateful living is trust in life. Begin by opening your eyes and be surprised that you have eyes you can open.

That incredible array of colors that is constantly offered to us for pure enjoyment. Look at the sky. We so rarely look at the sky. We so rarely note how different it is from moment to moment, with clouds coming and going. We just think of the weather

And even of the weather, we don’t think of all the many nuances of weather. We just think of good weather and bad weather. This day, right now, is unique weather. Maybe a kind that will never exactly in that form come again.

That formation of clouds in the sky will never be the same that is right now. Open your eyes. Look at that. [David] We are all born with openness for mystery. [Jason] What is curiosity? Well, curiosity starts really, really young, almost our first conscious experiences.

As soon as we can see that there is a world, we start asking questions about it. Questions in your head, imagination. If you don’t have imagination, you can’t have curiosity, because you need to think and say, “Hey, what is this? What is that?” It’s really the gateway to knowledge.

An idea is such a complicated thing. It can only happen if a certain door is open and a question asked. Those questions are fire that excites a mind, and open it up and make it desire the incoming pieces that put an idea an answer to that question together. Kids are animated by curiosity.

I was starting to take song and dance classes when I was like five and six. When I was a little boy learning watchmaking. [man] When I was a kid, I went to see the haunted mansion at Disneyland, and I thought, “That’s really neat. I want to do that.”

[man] I’ve always been interested in aviation, airplanes. I got started as a kid building models. The big ones like these are not too much different than a model. Just bigger and stronger. When I was a kid, my grandpa used to take me to the hardware store

To buy a dynamite when we got bored and go blow rocks up out on the farm. I’m a 50 year old kid at heart and I usually go to schools, and I took this toy box with me. There’s a ditch witch digging tooth, a stove leg, and that thing you put on there,

And you got an elephant. See the elephant? Claw-foot bathtub leg and that stove part, you stick them together, you got a camel. See his mouth? I like the kids anywhere from fifth grade to the end down because they’ve got imagination. [girl] Living on Matinicus

Is really fun because there’s so many beaches to play on. And there’s a lot of coast you can find sea glass on. These kids have imaginations. And if you want to develop imagination, I mean, here is this island. [girl] There’s so much to do out here and there’s so much to explore.

When I watch TV… …it’s just some shows that you just, that are pretend. And, and when you explore, you get… …more imagination than you already had, and um, when you get more imagination, it makes you want to go deeper in, so you can get more and see beautifuller things.

Like, it could– The path, if it’s a path that could lead you, it could lead to a beach or something and it could be beautiful. [Paul] When you immerse a child into the living world, the perception and the interaction with that changes their brain, changes their minds. And these minds,

Are the most innovative minds there can be because innovation comes from connecting things in novel ways. [June] I think lobstering and teaching actually go together pretty well. Both things you got to persevere, you can’t give up. Not catching lobsters, you better try another way. Better set your traps a little differently.

Better rig them a little different. Better use a little different bait. Same thing with kids. They’re not learning, uh, rig up your lessons a little different way. [chuckles] You know, put a little different bait in there. You can eventually catch the lobsters, and you can eventually uh, teach the kids too.

[Chris] So when we talk to speakers about how to give a great talk, -one that will really land with people. -[applause] One of the key things we say to them is what you are doing is bringing an audience on a journey.

You’re trying to convey an idea that’s in your mind into their minds. You can’t do that in a leap. You have to bring them along a journey one step at a time and gradually build that idea up. Now you can’t bring people on a journey unless they want to come on the journey.

And so, uh, the way you make them want to come on the journey, is to make them curious. That’s often the best way to start a talk, as if you are taking them through a detective story, unpick the clues one by one.

And that way, this complex thing that informs you and your worldview has been transferred into thousands of minds. That really is a miracle. A rich life of learning has been a luxury that most people haven’t had a chance to have. I believe that’s changing. It’s really quite extraordinary.

It’s going to be a unique time in history where in principle, anyone on the planet can learn curiosity. It could open the door to a very beautiful future and a flourishing of human creativity, knowledge, and empathy. What I’ve done for 35 years

Is I’ve gone out as a discipline to meet a new person every two weeks, that’s expert in some other subject other than mine. But here’s something about curiosity. Sometimes people go, “Why are you asking me that question?” Because you’re challenging authority. There’s absolute disruption involved because I’m not going to ask you, Louie,

-generic questions. -Yeah. You’re going to get bored that fast, so I have to ask questions that are going to make them think and challenge their existence. That creates for me inspiration. I want to actualize the inspiration that I felt from that conversation. Probably the single thing I’m most curious about

Is who we are. How is it that we feel things? How is it that we ask questions? And why all this matters? And as those questions are answered, you fill up with a sense of wonder. Wonder is the gradual satisfaction of curiosity in a beautiful and surprising way.

[Louie] When thinking of Einstein’s definition of God, and he said, “It was a sense of wonder.” If you don’t feel that your eyes are closed, you might as well be dead. It’s a sense of wonder, delight, humility, and loss of hubris and actually confusion. Bewilderment is the holiest of holy experiences.

You lose your hubris. And this becomes sacred in every moment. That’s gratitude. [Louie] We are all born with a sense of wonder. Sometimes it’s triggered by astonishing feats… …monuments to mankind’s capabilities… …extraordinary talents and gifts… …or scientific discoveries that pushed the boundaries of comprehension. Wondering awe allows us to transcend the ordinary…

…even to test our concepts of time and scale. We are, as they say, in the moment. Wonder inspires us to open our hearts and our minds to engender gratitude. [Jason] These experiences of wonder and awe are deeply meaningful. They are experiences worn in the human heart, experiences of conscious beings

Who can contemplate themselves as thinkers who exist in a universe that’s much bigger than them. I mean, these experiences reveal to us the depths and textures of what makes us, us. [Jack] How did we get in here with wiggly things at the end,

And a hole at the top part with which we regularly stuff with dead plants and animals, and grind them up with these bones hanging down, and glove them through the tube, where we have these weird looking protuberances, mine stick out pretty far. And I can… [exhales] …have the atmosphere

Through my lungs and change my vocal cord and mouth shape and say, “Eiffel tower.” And you can picture the Eiffel Tower. No one can explain that. How did you get in there? [Jason] These experiences are ways to step off the people mover that’s carrying everyone else towards death. And that mystical revelation

Leaves no room for anything else. When we step out of time, we transcend our finitude and we become infinite. [cheering] Whoo! [David] All people want to be happy and joyful. I make a difference between happiness and joy. Joy is the happiness that doesn’t depend on what happens.

So that’s what we really want. We want a lasting happiness. [Christine] In defining happiness I like to skirt that definition a little bit. I use the word happiness as a handle. We might be talking about happiness, but really, we’re talking about the physiological experience of an emotion that feels like happiness.

We’ve spent an awful lot of time as a society looking at dysfunction and disorder. I’ve instead looked at the positive things, positive emotions and grit and resiliency, and really with an eye towards “What in this can we control?” How is happiness a skill that we can practice?

[Stephan] I was studying chemical engineering at Northeastern University, and I got more and more disenchanted with the corporate structure. I hit the streets with my guitar during the summer of 1971, and I essentially never left the streets. ♪ Though I got to move ♪ [Stephan] Art and self-expression are a basic human need,

And I’ve performed at all the major colleges, and I go on campuses specifically say, “You can quit chemical engineering.” [chuckles] “You can leave this if this is not what you want to do.” Culturally we’re interested in happiness. We think of it as the end-all, be-all, the reason that we’re here,

But we pursue pleasure and gratification. And that just leaves us wanting more. [man] Some folks are looking for that pot of gold, you know. I found that pot of gold. And that doesn’t mean money, folks. It means more than money. It means a way of life. It means a rhythm of life.

I am John Harrigan. I’m here at my newspaper office in Colebrook, New Hampshire. About fifteen, twenty years ago, I had an offer of a really nice job at the Boston Globe, and I came this way. [man] I went to a barber’s school in New Orleans,

But my plan was always to come back to a small town. In this small community we speak French, you know, and there’s a sense of joie de vivre. I think to the French just means taking each day and really living each day according to, uh, your own desire, what you want to live.

[Jack] One of the things we’ve lost in the modern world, with its speed and complexity, is the sense of belonging and the sense of connection. We all know it. We long for it. We want it. We do all these things to try to get it.

[Christine] A huge obstacle to happiness is our busyness. We believe that busyness is a sign of success and significance, and importance. We see busyness as a mark of character. [Chris] So much people’s lives feel like you’re stuck in a groove,

And it’s a routine and you have to do a certain thing to survive, to make money. And there’s no time. I was an entrepreneur. I was incredibly busy. I thought I was doing awfully well, and then the company hit an absolute roadblock. Nasdaq crashed. In a few months, I switched from being

Rockstar entrepreneur to utter loser. And I felt plunged into a personal trauma. [Christine] Busyness and the overwhelm that comes from that looks more like what researchers call cognitive overloading. Cognitive overload makes it really hard for us to think clearly, to plan, to organize and it affects us emotionally. We react instead of respond.

What saved me was immersing myself in reading again and remembering how amazing it was to learn. [Christine] We have all these wonderful technologies that lead to great ease and great power but that also are very effective at helping us numb how it is we’re really feeling.

We will pull out the computer that is in our pockets, and that numbs the anxiety that we don’t have anything going on and that we’re not being productive. But it also numbs the positive emotions too. Love and compassion, and awe, and astonishment, and engagement, and inspiration.

And so if we’re not letting ourselves feel anger or guilt, then we never really feel profound happiness, or great gratitude. Scientific experiments have actually shown that people who cultivate gratitude do actually become happier. There have now been a whole series of studies that show that people who pray or meditate regularly

Live longer and are healthier. So gratefulness does have a stamp of scientific approval now. It’s good for you. [Christine] I see gratitude as a route to a happy life. It’s about how to become a better human being. A better human being. [Christine] Gratitude is a skill that we can practice

In order to not just cope with life’s difficulties but to really embrace those difficulties and then let the positive emotions emerge from within those. [Norman] We probably wouldn’t be doing this interview if I wasn’t a television person with some reputation that’s kind of public knowledge and so forth.

But that camera wants to be pointed at every person I’ve ever met. [Milton] I’m Little Milton and we are in a little country town called Waterproof, Louisiana. You know so many people ask me why I still play at little clubs like this in little cities. One of the reasons is

I’ve never wanted to lose my identity with just regular down-to-earth people. The people are the star. ♪ That’s wrong You know I’m saying ♪ ♪ I know I’m singing Just you and you and you ♪ ♪ You take the blues ♪ ♪ I wanted to help To make it through ♪

♪ I want everybody To hear me when I say ♪ ♪ The blues is back And here to stay ♪ [applause] We all have a story to tell, and we all have the capacity to light up a moment for the next person and we do it. It’s just simply not recorded.

Love is the drug. I was wearing leathers. She was walking up the hall. I was walking down the other way. We passed, we walked backwards looking at each other, and that was downhill ever since. -She’s so beautiful… -[squeals] Sam. …intelligent, musical and a great actor.

That’s why I’m with him, you know, he just gives me compliments. [both laugh] [instructor] Now, I’m going to demonstrate it with my wife. Okay, always smile a little bit. Look, look for her. When you can look around, that’s not a problem, but then have a connection with her, okay?

So now it’s easier for her to understand what you’re trying to do, all right? Remember, we’re like… …the picture, you know. We’re the frame, she’s the picture, you know? A Picture without a frame doesn’t look the same. When I think about connection, I think about intersubjectivity. I think about the human capacity

To pierce beyond the veil of individuation, and to enter the Holy Other, to blast new tunnels between the mind and the other. We resist. We refuse to live alone inside of our own minds. Instead, we crave an intersubjective ecstasy. We crave a crossing over.

We create cinema that allows us to experience a deictic shift to enter the subjectivity, the interiority of another person. That’s why cinema is an engine of empathy because it allows you to enter that something else. That’s someone else, that’s somewhere else, to pierce the veil that separates us from one another,

To enter a kind of technologically mediated Buddhism, to create an internet that links together billions of minds, transcending time, space, and distance, collapsing geography. All becomes one. What is within becomes without. This is kind of wonderful, right? When I think about connections, I think about understanding, which, as Carl Sagan says,

Is a kind of ecstasy. So that with comprehension comes meaning, comes signification. That’s what I think about when I think about connection. It’s lunchtime. I’m gonna cook some good old… …hot sausage. Nothing like having some good veggies with a hot sausage. I’m going to cook up some hamburgers.

I’m going to broil some turkey necks real spicy. And all my friends and neighbors are going to come hang out, and party New Orleans style. -Gotta love that hot sauces. -[woman 1] You got rabbit? I ain’t pulled a rabbit out this time, Charlie. I ain’t pull a deer out neither.

I came straight with the hot sausage, the hamburgers, and them, um, and the potatoes. And I bought the broth some turkey necks. -I gotta put them turkey necks on. -[indistinct] [honks car horn, laughs] Charlie Rock. I just love this neighborhood. [jazz music]

[man] In the French Quarter they called it Turkey à la King We just call it broiled turkey necks. Well, you know, uh, and the trim a thick waters broth turkey necks and you can cut up all kind of bell pepper, garlic, lots of garlic. The Garlic keeps the evil out the neighborhood

And keep everybody with love and happiness. [crowd cheering] [Rick] One of the great things about being a restaurant chef right now is that when we see people come into our restaurant and sit down, it’s sort of the last vestige of where people put their phones away and look each other in the eye

And actually have face-to-face conversations. And then that is all animated by really delicious food, which we hope will stop you in your tracks at some point in the meal, so that you appreciate the stuff that’s right in front of you. That’s another thing that I am grateful for every day is that

My job is to bring people together and make them happy. A person’s happiness is best predicted by the breadth and the depth of their connections to the people around them. Their social ties. [Mark] My name is Mark Sawa and I’m a reincarnated Neanderthal

That’s been set back to play Cajun music for the world. You know, you start off with a big bowl of hot water and if you just try to taste that, it doesn’t taste very well, but if you add a few notes and a few spices here and there,

A few embellishments, before long you’ve got a gumbo or a two-step, and that’s pretty much what it’s all about. -[man] Whoo-hoo! -That’s it. It’ll soon be ready. Oh, yeah! [David] Look at the faces of people whom you meet. Each one has an incredible story behind their face.

A story that you could never fully fathom. Not only their own story but the story of their ancestors. We all go back so far. And in this present moment on this day, all the people you meet are that life from generations, and from so many places all over the world,

Flows together and meets you here, like a life-giving water if you only open your heart and drink. [Norman] I understand that a moment parking my car and having an exchange with the valet that made him smile gave me a good feeling. There are times when I remember to think that was good.

Do I have any purpose, it would be to help people understand how much they matter in the course of their days. [Luisah] If there is an accident or a murder somewhere, people who are unrelated to the person who was hurt, come lay flowers. And so that sense of community is coming back.

We are slowly coming to realize we are all human. And getting more in touch with our kinship. [man] I been to church, uh, occasionally. And I’ve been to the uh, sermons that Cecil Williams have had. He teaches the, the power of love.

[Cecil] Many of you come to God because you feel some human connection. Many of you come to God because you are looking to be reunited. Many of you come to God because you want some spirit. You want to be lifted up, you want to cry, you want to moan,

-you want to shout, you want to raise your hands. -[clapping] You want to clap your hands. That’s why we come together. ♪ Praise God ♪ ♪ Praise God ♪ ♪ Praise Him ♪ -[vocalizing] -♪ Praise Him ♪ -♪ You got to lift Him up ♪ -♪ Praise Him ♪

-♪ You got to lift Him up ♪ -♪ Praise Him ♪ ♪ Well come on, Come on, come on ♪ -♪ Praise Him ♪ -[cheering] [Cecil] When I first came here, I decided I wanted a church that was inclusive. We were not even concerned about ideologies for a while.

We were more concerned that we could find a better home, and a better place, and a better community for all people. [woman] We started a meal program here just from a core of volunteers. A program that feeds a million and a half meals a year.

I like to quote, blessed the chicken on Thursday. Yeah. I, I’m on a pension myself because I’m a retiree. And towards the end of the month, you know, like it, it really helps out. [woman] When I met Cecil, he was out in the streets

Bringing in the people who were lying down drunk, totally strung out. He was daring the church to come down off of its piety and say, “Here is a feasting table. Sit, come, you are all welcome.” [gospel singing] ♪ So much better ♪ ♪ Since I made My purpose known ♪

We should stop trying to get folks to go to heaven or hell, and get folks to live with each other here on the earth right now. I think it feels better to do a generous act than to receive a generous act.

It means a lot to me when I see someone smile or say, “Thank you,” because you know that you accomplished something good, and there is such thing as karma and karma comes back to you. [Lynne] Generosity and gratitude are linked when we naturally generous, or naturally grateful because gratefulness is the experience

Of the great fullness of our lives. The great fullness of the gifts and talents we have, the great fullness of the blessing that it is to be alive. The great fullness to be able to able to see, to be able to speak, to be able to breathe. When true generosity is being expressed,

It comes from great fullness. It comes from enoughness, it comes from what I call sufficiency. Not only does it nourish other people, it nourishes you to be generous. [Christine] We live in a more is more kind of a culture where we’re looking for more likes on Instagram,

And more friends on Facebook, and more prestigious jobs. And we certainly take more work in hopes that will earn more money, so that we can buy more stuff. More is not necessarily better. Do you have so much, we can’t catch up with being grateful for it.

We are sort of overwhelmed by it all. [Christine]Gratitude is an interesting thing because it arises naturally in conditions of scarcity. [David] What we really want is not quantity, it’s quality. You live on a limited planet, there is no room for unlimited growth. It is just crazy. Uh, but we haven’t learned that yet.

[Lynne] How the universe has already provided us exactly what we need. I don’t mean that there aren’t people who don’t have jobs. They don’t mean that there aren’t people who don’t have food and water. I worked on hunger and poverty. I’ve held dying babies in my arms. I know that.

I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about this mania for more. [Luisah] I think that as children, on this planet, we have a lot to be grateful for. I just wish that we had enough gratitude to overcome greed and selfishness. [Lynne] When you are in touch with enough, it overflows into natural abundance,

Not excess, not waste, but natural abundance, out of which generosity is a normal, flowing way of being because you feel totally interconnected to everyone else. I think it’s the source of longevity. It’s the source of well-being, the source of health. Because when you’re in touch with generosity, you’re in the eternal.

Every time we tap into the eternal to the sacred is timeless. Time actually stops. Don’t insult creation with your human arrogance. Be grateful for the miracle that is your life. That’s the source of generosity, of prosperity, of gratitude, and of fulfillment. It’s one of those places where we express love

And there’s nothing quite like love because that’s what it’s all about. [upbeat music] ♪ Little girl, good morning ♪ ♪ Just another break of day ♪ ♪ When Jesus touched me ♪ ♪ Oh, He washed my sins away ♪ ♪ I felt like running I feel like… ♪

My name is Mosie Burks, [chuckles] and I’m a child of the King. That’s who I am. My mom passed away at the age of 40, and, and I inherited six children. The youngest was four years old. And I would cook the last meal at night and go to bed, and say my prayers.

And the next morning before daylight, somebody would be knocking on the door and said, “Mosie, here’s some chicken” or “Here’s some bread,” and I would just praise the Lord for that. And as, as they grew up, and they married off in my yard. And now I receive happy cards.

I have mementos in my house that I get each time because I’m their mom. My mom was a great mom. I became a great mother. I am a great mother. [Luisah] Women do tend to be more tuned into universal energies because we are the ones who catch spirit

And spin flesh around it in our wombs. That’s a magical act. [Jack] People are worried when they have the first child. “Oh, will they develop? Will they grow up all right?” You know, I think first children are made to be quite robust to withstand first-time parents.

[Barry] Surfing with my kids is really exciting. I was a father kind of late in life, so I’ve, I’ve really enjoyed having my kids. I spent a lot of time with them and I love taking them out. Surfing and turning them on to the things that I love to do.

[George] One of the great things about having a small farm, is you get to see your child grow up. You don’t send them to daycare, and that kind of thing. Now, I have my son half the time every other week. He’s here with me all day, and it’s just delightful.

Just watch him grow up here and look at him, look how he’s over there with that cow. It’s just a beautiful thing. It’s just beautiful. There’s nothing more important than that. Watching your children grow up. Learn new things every day. Uh, I just love more than anything else.

[man] Family is everything because we grew up without my father. So we’re used to always, uh, complain and everything, so my mom, she goes like, “You don’t have a father, but you have your brother, you have another brother, You have your, your sisters, so you have a big family, you know.”

She really tell us how to be, uh, real brothers, how to help each other, you know? To feel that you have a family, you know, we have that. [salsa music] [man] When I came here and I saw them dance, I was like, “Wow, I want to dance like them.”

-Now he’s our ap, inspiration. -[man] Inspiration, yeah. He’s been winning so many competitions. [man] I would never compete against my brothers. I have a lot of respect for them, and I know I’m going to still learning every day. [salsa music] [airplane approaching] [Patty] Being a three times U.S. National Aerobatic champion,

I had to learn to focus. I had to learn to be one with the airplane. I’m the first woman to win the Nationals and the only woman to have won it more than once. I’m very proud of that because it’s very difficult to do. You have to have a 100 percent concentrated focus.

And that’s one of the reasons that I really like what I do, is because it forces me to get rid of all the other sort of extraneous thoughts, and all the mundane stuff that happens around you during the course of your life, and get inside this tunnel

And think of nothing else but flying the airplane. It really gives you a rush. [Louie] When filming, I have to decide where to set my focus. Inside of every image, there’s a large range of possibilities, and choices regarding what f-stop, lens, and distance I choose. But I can only pick one combination.

Focus allows me to direct the eye to move within an image, to tell a story. This process of selection obscures everything else which is a distraction. Our life’s journey is about making choices and focusing on what is important. Like the little things in life we often take for granted.

Focusing on what you do have leaves little room in your heart for dwelling on what you don’t have. This fuels the feeling of joy inside yourself and triggers another good feeling that broadens your perspective, and brings the focus back to gratitude. [Michael] It was the hardest thing in the world

To hear my mother weeping in the background, as a judge passed the sentence upon me. On one fateful night, I decided to commit armed robbery, which cost me six years of my life. While I was incarcerated, I continued to get my education and I learned how to box.

A lot of guys have been fighting since they’ve been little boys, where I had only been competing for a couple years. [man] Work a little bit harder. [Michael] I was able to make up for my lack of experience. My heart carried me a whole lot of distance.

I came out here and aim for the Olympics. My name is Michael Bennett. I’m a U.S. Olympic athlete. Um, I represented us as the captain of the U.S. Olympic boxing team. I set that goal for myself, and I grabbed it and I put it in my pocket.

I brought it home to my mother to show her, like, “Look at a good job I did.” [Ed] Every once in a while you get this time in your life that’s sealed, signed, and delivered. And it’ll be there forever. And one of those times for me

Was when I was probably in third or fourth grade and I asked my mom for money, and she had no money. And that broke my heart. And I never asked her again, and I went to work. I started working and I never stopped.

This is a three families here. They’re husband and wife after making a living today. We pay them a good amount right now because the harvest is here. I wish I had grapes fallen to pick every day. I’m very happy to have them on the ranch, and I appreciate their hard work.

They’re good people. [Norman] I was a kid of the Depression and my aunts and uncles, the most noble thing they could say of anyone was, “He’s a good provider.” My father used to say, “Know what you’re doing, and do what you know.” [Ben] Jerry and I, we were failing

At most everything else We were trying and we decided to go into business. And the only thing we like doing was eating. I think we’ve got possibilities here. You have a great business when the goal of the business is to meet the need, is to create the product, not to make money.

You, you make money as a by-product of meeting a need and doing a great job of it. What? Am I still dripping? [man] Oh, yes. You know, I’m a professional. I’m an executive, you know. It’s important to keep your image up. [man] My children do not follow me in my footsteps.

First of all, they couldn’t keep up. And second of all, there’s better ways of making a living. When I first came the oilfield in ’49 I was working for a drilling contractor, and we had a little explosion on the rig one time. I burned my whole head a little bit.

A few years later, I decided the best thing to do is be working for some companies to put fires out instead of being on a rig where they started. [singing] [Alex] A handmade hat is much better than a mass produced hat because it’s like maintaining art. You see work from a great craftsman

Who created beautiful statues or the erected beautiful buildings. I think hats are just my way of speaking to the world. [Ed] I love growing grapes, and I’m pretty good at it. And I’m getting better every year. It’s a matter of frustration. It’s a matter of patience.

You can learn how to grow grapes in 25 or 30 years. I think it takes a lifetime. Patience is really about trust. I see trust as like planting a seed. When you plant the seeds in the garden, there are droughts that come, there are insects that come,

So you have to tend the seed. But if you tend it, it wants to grow and it will produce amazing things. And if you want to teach children patience, have them plant a garden. Have them mark when the birds leave and when they come back in the season.

Have them put the little lines on the wall, how tall they are, and then look a few weeks later and notice they’ve grown. So that you invite them into the mystery of the natural unfolding. You hold their hand and say, “This world is trustworthy. This world wants you here as a child.

You’re a child of the universe, a child of the spirit.” So you choose your intention. You plant a beautiful seed, you direct yourself to a creative project, to a visionary way of living, to a community, a family, a part of the earth.

To something that is a gift that’s given to you that you can give back. It’s funny. People think that it takes a lot of patience to shoot time lapse for, like, 40 years, But what it really takes is trust. Hoping that this flower bud will open up in frame, in focus, won’t die.

And it teaches you, I think it made your lesson that, you know, if you let go, nature will provide. [Jack] Patience or trust is really waiting for the right season. Like surfing, you don’t just get on your board and paddle. You wait for the right moment in the wave.

And when you quiet your mind and open your heart and look, it’s not even a question of patience. It’s a question of being home. And you’re home exactly where you are which is where you always are in the reality of the present. It doesn’t mean that we don’t weep.

In some way, as we become trusting, patience, or grateful, even grateful for the difficulties, we also allow ourselves to be touched more fully by life. In that, there is a sense not of patience, but of presence that grows. And as you’re quiet, how can you be anything but grateful?

Grateful for the next breath. And someone who’s sick knows that really well. Grateful to be able to walk and eat. Grateful for the eyes that allow yourself to see the colors of the world. Grateful for the life you’ve been given. And this awareness, this presence,

It is who we really are. It is your birthright. You don’t have to be grateful. You are gratitude of the world expressing itself through you. You are the love of the world. Remember this as your true nature. Trust her, it is your home. [Minnie] This is where I learned to listen.

Most people pray and they’re doing the talking. When I weave, I must listen. And it quietens my head so I can hear myself. And I can know what. Separate the wheat from the chaff in my thoughts. And Albert does that in that field. Plowing the field.

He works in rows and I work in rows of fabric. Weaving back and forth, just like he does. He doesn’t have a boss. Nobody tells him to go out there. Eight o’clock every morning, start his tractor and plow. He decides. It’s called self-discipline. I have to learn that.

The simple act of quieting the mind for a bit, just taking a breath, stopping. Where you look around and say, “Wow, what really matters in this moment?” And if you take that pause and look the inner wisdom comes, and this is one of the great gifts of mindfulness.

[Louie] Mindfulness is being present like film itself. Sitting in a camera in total darkness, always ready for light to strike. [thunder] [Louie] Without preconceived notions, and without judgment to any subject. Observation is the key to learning. We need to nourish that sense of wonder. To relish and reveal the mysteries of life.

It’s these blessings that the heart remembers as gifts that engenders gratitude. What about courage? What does courage mean to you? -Courage? -Yeah. Courage has a lot to do with getting up in the morning. It’s hard to be a human being. I have not failed to notice.

But the more difficult, the more worthwhile the effort. [Buzzy] I’m scared every time I go out there. I mean, I get butterflies when I know it’s going to be big. It’s scary but it’s exciting. When we shot the cliff dancers of a mere beach, it took courage on both parts.

Their performance and our ability to haul that crane up that cliff and the rig it so it wouldn’t fall on their heads. Hanging an 80 pound camera right above them. It definitely takes a lot of courage to overcome fear. Fear can’t live in the present.

It exists in the past and it exist in the future. But if one is really clear and present, there’s no place for fear. [woman] There’s something about the moment that you lose touch with the earth. You know, the moment that your feet lift off the ground.

There’s this just this instant feeling of joy and surprise. I don’t like standing on a cliff if I’m not anchored in. As soon as I’m anchored in, and I understand the system, I’m free. That feeling of vertigo. It’s not the fear of falling.

It’s the fear of your deep desire to want to throw yourself into the freedom of that feeling of falling. When you take gravity, and you just play with it, and you find ways to soften it. To dance on walls. To dance on cliff bases. I decided to dive off the cliff of fear,

And once that happened, I was able to find the dance. [Erik] I think all the things that you need to survive and do well on a mountain also help you do well in life. I’ve been learning how to use ingenuity, to use an ovation to kind of reach beyond the obvious.

And find these secret systems that enable me to do things that I might not have thought I could do. My name is Erik Weihenmayer. Being a blind mountain climber is sort of like being a Jamaican bobsledder. The words don’t necessarily go together. When I went blind, there was a time that I thought

That life was, was filled with a lot of loss and not a lot of gain. Sometimes things are taken away and sometimes things are given to you. And you have to appreciate the things that you have. When I’m reaching out and swinging my ice tool, you know, I’m pretty sure

It’s a good hit, but you’re never really sure. Sometimes that fear of reaching out into the unknown paralyses people to the point they just decide not to reach out at all. And all the great things that have ever come to me, have come through reaching out.

And I think life is just a sort of an ongoing process of reaching out into the darkness when you really don’t know what you’re going to find. [Mike] You know, you can’t really have fear. Basically, fear causes hesitation. Hesitation will make your worst fears come true.

[man] You find yourself getting to a point where you just sort of let go, and it almost feels easy and real natural. Ultimately, gratitude is a way of life. It’s an attitude and a vibrational altitude that we live in. But there are tiers to it.

So, the first tier is we learn to be grateful for what we have. We bless our food. We bless our house. We bless our friendships. We’re grateful for a little, big, and medium things in our life. Then there’s being grateful for the challenges in our life.

That’s because the challenge is a gift in work clothes. It’s coming to bless us. We may not know it in that moment, but without challenge, sometimes the activation of our potential doesn’t happen. Our potential is bigger than any problems. A problem is an emblem of something happening in our awareness.

It’s emblematic. So when it shows up in our life, it’s forcing us to grow, to activate potential. So after a while we become grateful when we have a challenge. I’m not saying it’s easy, but it becomes a practice. So, we’re here at Amity, and this is day one

Of a three day comedy workshop. So we are going to be doing improv and stand up. I was in prison. I did two years and a half I’ve been incarcerated four times. In and out of county jail for the past 16 years. For eight years and five months.

For a little over 20 years. I was arrested when I was 18 years old. [electric whirring] It’s like being a caged animal. Amity is for people that have been released from prison, to stabilize you first. Now we’re going to go around and say one thing that we did like about this week.

Well, I got out of prison this week. [cheering] Bernadette, what’s something you’re afraid of? I’m afraid of getting my heart broken. I’m afraid of going back to prison. I’m afraid of losing my kids love. You see, uh, my kids never visit me in prison.

And we do these things thinking, “Oh, I’m the only one that’s getting hurt by this.” But you know what? There’s nothing that replaces a mother. If I could say anything to my mom right now, I would just tell her that I hope one day, we could put whatever is getting between us aside,

And put a mother-daughter relationship. A goal of mine is to adopt a child. A goal of mine is to love myself better. The crime was attempted murder. I took brass knuckles and I beat him up, and I threw him in my trunk. I was prostituting and I was on a lot of stuff.

Petty crimes, petty theft, just support the habit. My niece was hungry and I could only hear her so many times. Tell me, “Aunt Charlene, I’m hungry,” so I, I went to the store and I robbed donuts and milk. A woman attacked my son when he was ten years old and I beat her

Blind, literally blind. I was charged with second-degree murder. I left a woman bleeding to death in an alley when I have a belief that I should have gotten out and helped. [Jack] It is through allowing yourself to face the losses or grief or betrayal

That the great heart of compassion is born in you. [Christine] We forget about compassion as being a positive emotion because it involves suffering. But actually, I think it’s the most powerful positive emotion that we have. [Jack] In the Tibetan Buddhist monasteries, they pray for suffering. Grant that I may be given

Enough suffering that my heart will truly open with compassion. But you don’t have to ask for it. It is going to come, and it’s not a mistake. I remember my teacher in the monastery saying, “Where have you learned the most? When you’re having a good time cruising and it’s easy,

Or when you had to go through tough things? Where did your heart grow wise? Where did you become somebody that had courage and dignity and a deeper kind of love?” Sometimes we’ll find ourselves surrounded by dark clouds, with nothing to be grateful for. And almost without knowing, negativity enters all we do.

It’s a weight we carry until we finally learn to let go. When our hearts are joyful, the gloomy spirit has no place to land. [Cecil] Yes, it hurts. It hurts, to feel like you’re not doing what you could do, or to feel like the world is crushing on you.

Or to feel like you’re nobody, or to feel like everything is going against you. I want to see your eyes, opening up with not the shades or shadows covering them, but love, beaming with light from your eyes, which tells me it’s coming from your soul. [applause] I want that. Heart and soul.

I want heart and soul. I’d probably be in a penitentiary doing time again like I’ve always done if it weren’t for life. It’s a good job. And it’s keeping me from being in the line because I’ve been on that side. I had a slight gap in my employment history between 1968 and 1995.

[Norman] When I was nine years old, my father went to prison. And I was sent to live with an uncle, and then another uncle, and another uncle. Now, I was finally with my grandparents. But when I was living with those uncles, the only way I could pay back was to make them laugh.

Okay, so I do 18 years, right? You know, like, where you thought, “Oh, I can’t do this,” but you recreate that thought with “I can do this.” We are all creation. Yes. Talk to us. What do you want to talk to us about? -Relationships. -Okay, are you in one? [laughter]

[woman] It’s a priceless little tool to be able to take a situation that doesn’t feel good, and just take all the weight off of it, and bring it in perspective, laugh about it. Look up! [laughter] [woman] Okay, here we go. There’s symmetry in most things, and I see that,

And my life needs humor. [chanting] One, two, three, four! [applause] When I was this sober my intimate times used to be, like, a Herbal Essences commercial. [laughing] Now that I’m sober, it’s more like a, a dandruff shampoo commercial. [laughing, clapping] I bought Fifty Shades of Grey. And I got turned away with it.

-That’s like… -[laughing] No, I, I, tried to introduce some of the things to my husband and he wants a divorce now. [laughing] Look, ladies and gentlemen, I’ve been shot. I’ve jumped out of windows. I’ve been cut. [sighs] The most scary thing is, -is falling in love. -[laughing] -[woman] Yeah! -[applause]

My life has been so troubled, and so I’ve experienced so much sadness, and sorrow and humor has just, you know, set me outside of focusing on that. And so humor is also good medicine for me. [cheering] I’m grateful for… I’m grateful for my life.

When I was young I didn’t think that was gonna live very long, because my of lifestyle. I didn’t care whether I lived or died. And I’m grateful for my freedom, to be able to see sunsets and sunrises. I’m grateful for God and animals that get across to you.

You get to pet it, you know, you get to hold it. That I have people in my life who want to be there. How much fun was that show? Yeah? We did, we know that. And if we can do this, we can do so much more.

It made me realize how much I love my mind. -[woman] Yeah! -[applause] And it was a great confidence builder. You know, because without my family, I wouldn’t have some of these stories. So the creativity in, in, in using my life to make people laugh has made me appreciate it more.

Life is a work of art. Life is creative, and it’s what I create in my life that’s the most important. Creativity is a way to find commonalities between us. I want to be remembered for the person that I become, not that drug addict that I used to be.

[woman] How did I want to be remembered? Someone that was happy. And one that always brought light into the room. [woman] Just remember me as me and my smile. Mm-hmm. Everybody in the club, they ain’t allowed to take drugs, or, or carry guns, or none of that.

Most of these guys that are in the club, they, they’ve been through it, they got out of it. You know, and now it’s work on your car, and if they see you taking drugs, or, or carrying a gun or something, you’re out. It’s pretty strict. [man] You see these dull grey walls,

And you imagine having your way with those walls, and when you do get your way, you’re going to beautify them to your fullest capability. [Harrod] When I was 16, I got this car and it was all white. So I started by painting a rooster on the door, and suddenly I had an identity.

[man] More than anything, it’s just the pure enjoyment of being able to see people appreciating what I do. What can be more satisfying than that? Everybody keeps saying “You’ve got everything on there, but the kitchen sink.” And I can honestly say I do have the kitchen sink now.

[woman] People say I was in a bad mood, and I saw your car, and I just started smiling, and it just made me happy. When I see them smile, then it take me out of a bad mood if I’m in a bad mood. So it’s very therapeutic. Actually I’m a therapist.

[woman] The nice thing about art cars is they’re mobile. They are not sitting in a gallery. I think you get a more true reaction. The first question so many people ask is, “Don’t the police harass you?” Because people really feel like it must be illegal to have this much fun.

♪ Just sing everybody ♪ ♪ Sing loud on the volume ♪ [Larry] Every bead, every stitch on this is mine. I don’t have to worry about nobody’s saying they did this, they did that because this is my love and this is my passion.

There’s no money in it. There’s only a lot of headaches, and sore fingers. [man] Zozobra is stuffed with the documents that the people of Santa Fe want to get rid of. Divorce papers, old love letters, arrest warrants, bad credit reports. And then we burn him, in order to have a good new year.

[David] We are all born with openness for mystery, that which you cannot grasp but you can understand it by letting yourself be touched by it. And most people experience that, for instance, with regard to music. And when you enjoy music, it has to grab you.

♪ I got up this morning With the Holy Ghost now ♪ ♪ I didn’t have no doubt ♪ [Mosie] It’s like singing in front of a wave. All those voices coming and it, and it keeps building, and it keeps and it lifts me up.

And then to have the audience to come in with the other wave, and we get caught up in the spirit. [chuckles] And it just takes me higher and higher. And it’s like, wow! [laughs] [salsa music] Salsa for me, it’s like… …everything. Love, passion. It’s something that everybody has inside.

But not everybody can find it. And when you find out that thing is out of you, you will never stop. [salsa music] [Jason] When I think of energy, I think of passion. I think of human imagination. I think about creativity.

I think about existential angst. I think about boredom as a kind of meaning withdrawal. Something that agitates something within that makes you say, “I got to get up, I got to move, I got to create something in the world.” Ernest Becker says, “We are simultaneously gods and worms.

With our minds, we can ponder the infinite. Yet we’re housed in a heart-pumping breath-gasping decaying bodies. We fancy ourselves as gods, but we are doomed to be food for worms.” And that agitation, that tension energizes us, and it makes us want to remake the world. [Dan] I started collecting junk

Because my parents moved us out from Crookston, Minnesota, where I was living the life of Huck Finn, and put us right in a concrete jungle in Seattle, and there was nothing to do. So I started scrounging the piles of garbage put out for the garbage man and found cool stuff.

One piece sparks my imagination. Then I go out and, like, fall in love with several other pieces of metal to come up with a sculpture. To me, it isn’t junk, it’s rusty gold. And I’ve been known to stay up all night welding. It’s like surfing the creative wave.

Once you get up on top of that wave, you don’t want to get off it. I found love and self-respect and everything else in art, and it made me feel good. It saved me. [Allyson] You know, everything else is kind of work. And then there’s this. And hopefully, on my last day,

We’ll be making art sometime on that day. We try to make art every day. It’s our meditation. It’s our spiritual life. Art. We’ve been in the room together for 40 years, making art every day. And when you think about that, that is a spiritual practice. Do you think that purpose affects longevity?

I think everything that makes you feel good affects longevity. Uh, laughter I know it affects longevity. And art affects longevity. [upbeat music] [Beverly] Well, I’m still doing flips and headstands and cartwheels, and I have a great time because I love doing acrobatics.

I’ve done them all my life, and there are a lot of things I can’t do that I used to, but I can still do more than most 83-year-olds, I’m sure. [upbeat music] Here’s the secret of life. It’s something to do on Tuesday and Wednesday, and Thursday, and Friday.

You want to live forever? As soon as you get out of here get a damn job. [crowd laughs] Now that I’m working again, -maybe my kids will stop trying to marry me off. -[crowd laughs] Dancing at the Follies is sure heaven, ’cause this year I’m 77. [applause]

At 65, like a fine aged wine, I’m in my prime. [applause] This is my fourth year here where I love to be, on the stage, my age 83. You work out, you sing, you exercise, and everyone here is very creative, and we get it from each other. Lot of love around here.

And energy. [chuckles] If someone gets to 80 years old, and they’re still capable of dancing ten shows a week, three and a half hours at a pop, you’re fairly confident that these are folks with an enormous amount of character. We look for energy, and hope, and stamina, the ability to never give up.

[piano music] [Francis] Someplace I read that every stair you step on, adds four seconds to your life. There’s 74 steps out here, so each time I come up here, I add a little bit to my life. I only come up here once a week. I checked the time.

If necessary I regulate a little bit, and then I checked these lights. Make sure they light up the clocks and I wind it. They hired me at 25 a month, and uh, they’re little low on money right now, so I forget to bill them. I hope the window won’t get my hat.

It probably wouldn’t hit the ground in Nebraska. [Jack] When you look in the mirror, there is this amazing moment where you realize that you’ve aged a bit. Losing your fur in some places, or drooping in others, or wrinkling, it’s what happens. But the weird thing that most everybody experiences is

That you don’t necessarily feel older. And that’s because it’s your body that’s aged. It goes through the life cycle of the infant to adolescent, to young adults to old age. But the witnessing consciousness, who you really are, the awareness itself, is timeless, is outside of time.

[Marvin] You know, I’ve had this imagination all my life. I can take a piece of wood and do everything, except say make it talk. One day I believe I can make a piece of wood talk. I ain’t no spring chicken no more, but I’m still hop around a little bit. [chuckles]

I go to bed every night, intending fully to wake up the next morning and I’m grateful, for that cup of coffee, and for the cereal I’m having, or the banana. It’s really very meaningful to me. [Jay] What is this tiny blink of an eye that we call life?

The whole of life and everything in it is a spiritual exercise. Just immersing myself in nature puts me much more in touch with that. [Christine] When we’re in the midst of a wonderful hike and looking at the trees and were overcome by the sense of awe, we take the split second to think,

“Oh, wow, I so appreciate this.” [Roudy] These mountains are an inspiration to me on a daily basis. You feel deep roots when you live on the Continental Divide for 30 years. It’s the backbone of the world, and maybe it makes me stronger just looking at it. Hey, hey, hey.

[man] As I get older, I have more questions, but I don’t care so much about the answers. The pondering is what I enjoy. [calm music] [Louie] There’s an ancient proverb that “The seeds of today are the flowers of tomorrow.” And I actually have a lot of faith that the younger generation

Are going to come up with the solutions to create a sustainable planet for their children and their children’s children. [man] What’s the matter with kids today? Well, there ain’t nothing wrong with kids today, but they should emulate me. I’m a shining example of how kids should end, uh, happy.

You get a horse that trusts you and you have a wonderful thing. A lifelong relationship that, uh, isn’t gonna let you down, and go away sometimes. I want to fall in love at 85. Go on shuffleboard dates, and dance to hip-hop from ’95. We’d rock matching track suits and rope gold chains.

We’d look like Run DMC but in their old age. We’d take aerobics classes and wear bifocal glasses, and eat at IHOP, and hold hands at Sunday masses. And when it comes to the bedroom, well, nothing much would happen in the bedroom because we’re 85.

But we would still be down to take a walk or take a drive, and sit and talk or have a drink, watch the passers-by, ask each other why and how, and who, and where, and when. And then we’d laugh and cry again about the people we had been.

I would touch her withered skin and comment on how thin it is to keep in something infinite. And she would smile sweet and blush, and tell me that I think too much. She’s right. I think too much. It’s always been a problem. But again, that’s how I made my green like the goblin.

When I was in my 20s, I was eating top ramen, counting up my pennies, saving up to go food shopping. But now I’m 85, and somehow I feel more alive. I turned my hearing aid up and bumped Jurassic 5. And when it comes to the bedroom, well, hopefully, every once in a while,

She lets me knock her boots into the floor patterns of our bedpost, then hold her head close like death isn’t chasing us, planning on erasing us, and replacing us with better versions of us. Reshaping us, remaking us, then recreating us with new identities so we can make new memories.

Hush, little baby. Learn to walk and talk, and think, and lie, and feel, and fight, and love and die, and never get the answers why. When I first saw her I was totally in awe. She was classical, so I was like, “Yo, yo, Ma.”

And that was all it took. A single look and I was shook. I fell for her like some loose shingles from our Spanish roof. And I’mma love her till she loses every last root and has to glue dentures to her gums to chew solid food. Oh. Now that’s real love, dude.

That’s some push comes to shove love. Not when it’s convenient love. Hospital bed love. Feed her ice chips love. Never leave the room love. Sleeping in the chair love. Pray to up above love. Have to pull the plug love. Miss her in my bones love. Everything about her love.

Died within a month love. Can’t live without her love. Love, the only reason that we are alive. And none of us should have to wait until we’re 85. See, my wife and I, was extra close. We lived together and we worked together.

In the winter time I’d start a fire there in the morning, and by the time we’re still eating, would be nice and warm. We read our mail up here. And since she died, I’ve never had a fire in that stove. She died of Lou Gehrig’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

No one knows what causes it. No one knows what to do about it. [Jack] We’ve all felt that feeling of being a part of everything. We’ve known it sitting with someone, when they’re dying, and that extraordinary opening when the spirit leaves the body as silently as a falling star.

And you know some great mystery has been revealed in front of you. [David] I grew into this habit of being grateful for everything. All my friends when I was a teenager, killed in the war, killed by bombs. And so we were constantly surrounded by death

And to be alive, that in itself is just such a great gift. My brother’s name was D-Boy Darnell Andrews. He was murdered not too far from here. And the most important thing for me in my life is passing it on to the children. That’s how I overcome everything,

By passing it on to another person. [playing jazz] [Jack] Each person has a gift. Whether it’s to plant a garden, or raise a beautiful child, or create a business, or live with peace, in a world that’s trouble. It might be very simple, but you have your gift. [playing the clarinet]

[David] We’re at the Eldridge Street Synagogue, which is the oldest synagogue in America. When I’m here I feel like I’m playing for my ancestors. [Jack] We are part of a life that has survived, and recreated itself generation after generation, and now it’s given to us. We get to watch our life unfold

The way we watch a flower unfold, the way we watch the trees blossom in the spring. [Ed] I like spring because everything is a fresh start. All the buds of broken loose. All the grapes are new again. Uh, the cattle are calving. New life everywhere.

The most powerful force in nature is to recreate yourself. That’s what grape vines are doing. That’s what oak trees do. That’s what the hills, mountains, birds, streams, everything wants to reproduce and survive. So maybe that’s what living out in the country, and living on a ranch like this does to a guy.

It just puts you in the middle of God’s glory. [Alex] William Blake said that gratitude is the closest thing we come to heaven. And I think that genuine gratitude comes about as a result of a loving connection. It’s showing respect for your own existence.

You have been given a chance in the cosmic lottery of life. You know, you got a ticket, you know? You’ve got to come to the party. And so it’s only right that you should be grateful. [Erik] A mountain is such an amazingly powerful force.

You can’t control it and you just have to accept it. And it’s a wonderful feeling. It’s a humbling feeling. Some people collect, you know, like antiques or baseball cards. For me, I’d just like to sort of collect experiences. Trying to soak it up. Get as much as I can.

[Christine] Gratitude is both a looking back at the past and the way of savoring it, of bringing it forward into this moment. [Louie] We’re not here of our own accord. We don’t know how we got here. We don’t know why we’re here. We don’t know where we’re going. The beauty of it is,

If you’re willing to actually hand over to that, then life becomes incredibly joyful. [David] As you live gratefully, it increases your trust in life because you see step-by-step life is trustworthy. [Jack] I’m grateful that I’m just here, just here at all. To be in a body on this earth at this time,

Which is an extraordinary time, in the most transformative epoch in human history. Here it doesn’t last long. And it never did in the first place. [Jason] In the great sand teachings, they say, “The awakened or liberated at heart and mind is one that’s free from anxiety about the future.”

Remember that the earth is circling the sun. The solar system is spinning on one arm of the Milky Way galaxy and turns every two hundred million years. And we’re on a great big Ferris wheel of a ride of mystery.

[David] And so I wish you that you will open your heart to all these blessings and let them flow through you. Let the gratefulness overflow into blessing all around you. [Louie] Appreciation is what we feel in the moment. Gratitude is what we remember, that opens our heart. [calm music] [“Gratitude” by Mantragold]

♪ I am grateful for the air I breathe ♪ ♪ The orange trees And the ocean breeze ♪ ♪ It’s a bar to me Yeah ♪ ♪ See there are things That I’ve yet to do ♪ ♪ And there are mountains I want to move ♪

♪ But I am right here Right now ♪ ♪ And it’s beautiful ♪ ♪ Live your life ♪ ♪ By the silver line Let it be your guide ♪ ♪ It’s a state of my mind ♪ ♪ Live your life ♪ ♪ By the silver line ♪

♪ It’s a state of my mind ♪ ♪ It’s a state of my mind ♪ ♪ Live your life ♪ ♪ Live your life By the silver line ♪ ♪ By the silver line You got to ♪ ♪ Live your life ♪ ♪ Baby, you got ♪ ♪ Silver line♪

♪ It’s a state of mind ♪ ♪ Live your life By the silver line ♪ ♪ By the silver line ♪ ♪ By the silver line ♪ ♪ It’s a state of mind ♪ ♪ Silver line ♪ ♪ It’s just a state of mind ♪

♪ Live your life By the silver line ♪ ♪ You got to live your life By the silver line ♪ ♪ It’s a state of mind ♪ ♪ Live your life By the silver line ♪