We often discuss gratitude as a valuable part of the recovery process. When discussing this process it is often easy to verbalize gratitude but I wanted to take a minute to reflect on what gratitude in action is. I have asked this question to my most recent 5k trainees and they had a hard time visualizing what “showing” gratitude was rather than feeling gratitude. Over the course of the 3 weeks we had to train for this 5k I was able to see overwhelming acts of gratitude from them, and overwhelming acts of giving from our Las Vegas Recovery Community.
The week our training began I noticed several girls did not have appropriate shoes to be running in a 5k, as for most it was their first time ever really running. I put it out to the community for shoe donations to help these girls prevent injury and to help them enjoy the training process a bit more with proper shoes. The response was immediate, we received a flood of donations and even had some donors purchase brand new shoes.
The above highlights one generous donation. This is her first time ever running and after receiving these shoes her affect, motivation, and desire to complete changed. She verbally expressed gratitude, and gave several hugs in the following trainings in an attempt to show it. The next week, she came down with a cold. She continued her training despite not feeling well and being really unable to complete the course given in the training, but she continued to show up.
Fast forward to the day of the 5k. The weather was 58 degrees with winds up to 30mph. This is not ideal weather to run in, especially for your first 5k, but everyone showed up, and everyone ran the 5k, with smiles on their faces, joy in their hearts, and gratitude in their actions.
So what does gratitude look like? What is the action that demonstrates gratitude? The short answer is you SHOW UP. You show up for yourself, you show up for others, you do what you say you will do regardless of the circumstances, and that is exactly what these girls did in exchange for a pair of shoes.
I want to thank ALL of the people who contributed to these participants journey. The response from the Las Vegas Community was incredible. Thank you to Alternative Peer Group (APG) in Las Vegas for hosting the Recovery 5k. The weather may have been miserable, but it was quite the accomplishment for these girls! Also big thanks to the anonymous donation for us to treat ourselves to a nice lunch after completing the 5k! We love this community and are so proud to be a part of it’s ever growing recovery programs!!