Blessed: Living a Grateful Life

Blessed: Living a Grateful Life is collection of stories about blessings from everyday life with a down-home, earthy feel to it. The cover, the vivid sensorial descriptions of gardening, stories of cooking, connecting with nature, and taking care of others combine to show the amazing and miraculous in the at-first-glance routine, commonplace, seemingly mundane aspects of life.
   
 As someone without children of our own, or any pets, who managed to kill the one and only living plant we had in our place by watering it too much, I wondered if I’d be able to identify with someone like Michaud, who is so connected to plants, nature, animals, and possesses strong maternal and survival instincts. These brief stories, as varied in subject matter as they are in the emphasized strengths of the women and men within them, proved to resonate very deeply with me.
    
The traditions and relationships in Michaud’s own small community, garden, and work provide a suitable frame for the portrait painted in each chapter.
    
Just as the flower seeds blown by the wind that settle into the soil and pop up from the ground come spring, Michaud illustrates how she and a myriad of remarkable women from different walks of life, disparate socioeconomic backgrounds, education, and life experiences bloom where they are planted, and/or in some cases, uproot and settle down to grow roots in a place more suitable for them to flourish.
    
The conversational feel of the book fits perfectly. I can easily imagine listening to any number of these stories sitting in the kitchen with Michaud, some hot tea, a slice of homemade cake, and a dog or two at our feet. She masterfully blends the deepest desires of the human spirit with intimate accounts of how real women have made a difference. Some of the more heart wrenching stories made me tear-up. Others made me marvel at the ingenuity of women, especially when it comes to loving, encouraging, and nurturing others who are suffering.
    
I would definitely recommend Blessed: Living a Grateful Life as a great reminder to cultivate compassion and an attitude of gratitude through acts of kindness big and small that provide blessings to us all.  For more information or to order your copy of the book, click here.  Check out Ellen Michaud's blog at http://www.theblessedblog.com/

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