Radical Gratitude

Happy Birthday, USA!

Today is the 250th birthday of the United States of America and it is the day I launch my new project on Gratitude as a way through turmoil: Giving Thanks. Here is everything you need to know about it, and I so hope will you spread the message and join me there.

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As a loving child of the USA, I have long wondered what I could give back to the country that raised me. And now, as it celebrates 250 years and I prepare to fill my backyard in London with hot dogs, beer cans and star-spangled banners, it’s clear: Gratitude. Because if you have watched or read the news at all in the past decade, you know the divisive narratives that would purport to rip the country in two. You might also know there is something much bigger than these narratives, something that lives in your heart.

Gratitude can help us navigate even the most upsetting circumstances with kindness, compassion and grace, and it has the power to bring us back together with hope for the brighter future we all deserve. This project is my offering to the USA - and to the world - in this time of tremendous transformation. I’ll be interviewing friends, colleagues and compatriots to share their understandings about gratitude, and I’ll share their blessings for greater unity. I’ll be welcoming your perspective, too, and sharing my own as we move through this time together.

Welcome to Giving Thanks.❤️

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Sometimes life hands you a project.

Perhaps more often than not, we first feel the existential urge for a new endeavor bubble up from the inside. It might arrive with a flavor of angst, a growing and uncomfortable awareness that what we’re doing now just isn’t quite right. This feeling itches and gnaws and persists until it is impossible to ignore, at which point we finally create the space to listen. And then, in this quiet place of possibility and potential, we tune into the vision and watch in amazement as it slowly unfolds before our eyes.

This is not what happened with this project.

This project knew it was coming for me, and it took no prisoners. It landed fully-formed at my doorstep back in the fall of 2024, when my wonderful friend Sandie Sedgbeer invited me to be on her radio show. Sandie is English and lived in the USA for decades; she has always felt a deep affinity with the country and its people, and she was watching the political landscape shift in ways that many could describe as alarming. Sandie wanted to talk to me just as Americans around the world were preparing to celebrate Thanksgiving, and - more specifically - she wanted to talk to me about gratitude.

We got together for a pre-chat one week after the federal election, and I knew already that U.S. politics would be the bedrock of our conversation. I knew it because my accent is enough to mark me as a representative of the country, and my bright while smile and positive attitude seal the deal. The thing about being American abroad is that it somehow becomes part of your identity in a different way, and your Americanness is reflected back to you even in the simple and obvious way people verbally distinguish you as American. “American Patrick”, strangely enough, does not exist in America where that descriptor would be largely useless; he only comes into his own as he roams the world.

Being a fish on the other side of the pond has given me a chance to appreciate both America and my Americanness in a remarkably different light, and it also means that I am by this point very well accustomed to receiving all manner of questions and comments when there are big things happening on the home front. So I knew that Sandie wanted to ask me about the new (and former) President because people had been asking me about it for days (and days and days). And I also knew what I had to say about it with my decidedly un-British bright white smile and positive attitude.

What I had to say had absolutely nothing to do with political analysis or my personal opinion about the election. I don’t tend to voluntarily consume political media, and the only news I read about the election was the result. I do this because I have put myself through election trauma enough times to know that it doesn’t help for me to tie my sense of well-being to a particular result. I have also learned that the biggest impact I can make is in my immediate environment, and - not being in America - that means my focus was largely on the friends, neighbors and colleagues I see in my daily life.

This distance from the storm, both literal and emotional, was a blessing because it gave me a chance to hold my center of calm. So instead of activating my nervous system with the news, I tuned into how those around me were feeling as the collective temperature rose. I wondered how I could offer them a meaningful and supportive perspective no matter who got the most votes, how I could find something of value to bring us back to the feeling of togetherness that nurtures our hearts.

And I found it: Gratitude.

Gratitude helps us drop our judgment and resistance about what we see before us. Gratitude gives us a chance to step back and see the bigger picture, and it invites us to appreciate how what’s happening now can raise our awareness in a loving way. Gratitude opens our hearts to listen to others with understanding and compassion, and it opens our minds to remember the hopes and values we share. Gratitude helps us to welcome the ever-present possibility of positive change, and it keeps us focused on constructive solutions that uplift everyone. And, perhaps most importantly, gratitude helps us trust the process of our own evolution into something better.

So as Sandie Sedgbeer and I talked about U.S. politics with gratitude, she took notes. And, unbeknownst to me until our on-camera conversation, she went a step further and full-on outlined a book for me about gratitude.

So this is what I mean when I say that this project did not tread lightly.

I knew from the outset it was going to happen. For one thing, I respect that when a prolific and highly successful book development editor hands you a brief to write a book, the wisest thing to do is write it. I also know that writing this book will give my message a chance to reach far beyond my immediate circle of life, that my gratitude can have a far bigger impact on the world if I let it speak. And so, I have wondered: if all of this true and this book is mine to write, then why am I not writing it?

This question has sat with me for months and months, until I realized what was missing: togetherness. This whole project is about how gratitude can bring us together, and this book wants that to happen now. So I’ve been talking to my friends, colleagues and compatriots about gratitude, and they have generously agreed to share their perspectives, practices and promises for benefit of all. And I want to know how it resonates with you, too, because gratitude is far more powerful if we share it.

So in other words: we will write this book together, and consider this your personal invitation to join in the creative process. Subscribe to Giving Thanks and (for free) you’ll get Q&As from the most interesting people I know, invitations to join us for live conversations about gratitude, and recordings of what we talk about. You’ll also get insight and personal wisdom from me as the process unfolds, and you’ll get the chance to connect with one another in gratitude in the comments below.

And if you can see how gratitude would help us move through the turmoil we see splashed all over the headlines - and how it might help you move through the turmoil in your own life, too - please please please share this message far and wide. I say this because I have learned that we move faster and further when we move together, and there is nothing I want more than for this world to be a better place for everyone in it.

Love,

Patrick

PS: Sandie Sedgbeer will, of course be the first guest to join me for a Q &A! I’ll share our written conversation on Giving Thanks, and you are welcome to join us for a live conversation here on Substack at 5:30 pm UK time on Thursday, July 23 (link to follow).

PS: If you’re curious about astrology, next week I’ll share a post here on Truth Takes Time about the remarkably divine timing behind all of this. It still blows my mind! 🤯

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Who am I and How to Work with Me

I’m an intuitive life coach, energy healer and astrologer. I’m also a creative writer, and I used to be a human rights lawyer.

I help people open their hearts and tune into the magic that is always around us. Together we clear away the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual blocks that prevent us from making more conscious choices, and we create personal experiences of wonder and delight. My goal is always to have a good time, and getting in flow with Our Universe never fails to deliver.

I work with individuals, groups, teams and organizations through my company Truth Takes Time. I work best with people who have some spiritual experience and are ready to step into bigger shoes. If this sounds like you, I invite you to check out my website and book a session. Or if you want to speed date, grab a 20-minute flash session for a bolt of insight that could change it all.

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