And Onward…

Gratitude Buddies was born of both a spiritual and entrepreneurial spirit, when I believed that those two things could cross or even that they must cross...

My first company, The Mindful Goods, was borne of my first love - meditation. But I also loved the idea that tech could guide people together through prompts toward shared wellbeing. And as one who believes that the 'universe' is guiding US, it certainly seemed like this could come to be! Indeed for a long time, it felt like many things were coming together to make GBs a reality…

And then that kind of stopped.

Here's the truth, as a single mom, I never had the time, energy or tech to really make it happen... and none of those things fell from the sky. Dammit.

But there was something else that bothered me: I couldn't fully get behind GBs in the way I wanted. When I was knee-deep in sorrow, I didn't always want a gratitude list, I wanted to grieve, to wail the cry of my aggrieved ancestors - and that felt right, it felt necessary and it felt spiritual.

And so to tell people to write down what they are grateful for every day - it didn't resonate in the way it once did or thought it would.

Surely, there is a time for that; but it is not always the time for that. Now perhaps people would have only signed up, when it was their time, but because it often didn’t feel like MY time, it didn’t fit. Temperamentally, I may not be the right person for it anyway. I couldn’t advocate for it in the way it needed. And as mentioned, I didn't have the time, energy or tech I needed!

That's when I thought about turning GBs into a skill-share. And I really liked this! I still think it's useful, but THAT also needs time, energy, dedication and tech to scale - and I am not sure it's something people should or would pay for. It's a good idea... our economy may look very different in the next 10-20 years, but it is not the right time for me to do that.

Now, does the universe send us signs?

In my experience: sometimes.

At the beginning of the year, I felt like I was being steered back to a project I started in 2018, a book called: What the Hummingbirds Taught Me. It now has a subtitle, so all together it reads: What the Hummingbirds Taught Me: Global Security Starts in the Nursery . As of today, I have now finished the 250 page draft and sent it to a professional editor!

So I am stepping into the arena of author - and seeing where that takes me.

I would love to be on the journey together…

THANK YOU for being on my side in all of this, and your support, which has always meant so much.

If you want to stay in touch:

There's Linkedin of course.

My Substack (poetry for now - but that will probably evolve)

You can also sign up on my personal website.

FINALLY, If you are free on Sept 4 and IF you live in VIENNA, I will be doing a first reading of my book at Cafe Schoppenhaur at 6pm.

I am also thinking about maybe turning this into an open-mic night, with the theme: Shared Soul (or something like that), and a 5 minute cap, creative work only.

Send me an email if you want to come: home[@] gratitudebuddies.com in case anything changes.

Lots of love. And of course, with gratitude -

Abbie ❤️