Cedar City Chamber of Commerce Blog

         Gratitude escapes me easily when I feel the pressure of work and home pounding down on me. I’m not alone, I’m sure. It’s the negative effect born of a positive tradition of celebration and endless merry-making this time of year. People often feel so pressured to embrace the season that they forget to embrace the reasons we come together in the first place to share our believes and express our heartfelt admiration with expensive gifts and gooey food.
                Whether I carefully contemplate it or not, I’m grateful every day. Whether I express it out loud or simply acknowledge it with a tired smile, I’m grateful nearly every hour of every day. However, today I have come to decide it is the expression of gratitude – honest to goodness gratitude – that blesses us most by blessing those around us.
                Today, I am grateful.
                I sincerely hope it’s a given that I’m grateful for my friends and family. I’m grateful that my beautiful children are independent and smart and sometimes stubborn. I’m glad that they’re forgiving and that I can give them something to forgive (they need all the practice they can get).

 I’m grateful for parents who value education on many different levels and from a variety of sources.  I’m grateful for my health, my mind, a roof over my head, food in my refrigerator (regardless of the expiration date) and clothes on my back. I’m grateful for the beautiful surroundings that I drink in every day.

I’m grateful for the ability to stand and not fall. I’m grateful for the ability to fall and still stand.

I could go on like this forever, but your list is probably strikingly similar to mine – with one possible exception: I’m grateful for the league of professionals that follow me and in doing so, lead me.

As the executive director of the Cedar City Area Chamber of Commerce, I have the pleasure of working with entrepreneurs and community leaders every day. As president of the Utah State Chamber of Commerce in 2008 I will have the pleasure of working even more closely with great leaders throughout the state, the nation – and, yeah, okay – the world. (We’re going to China in March!)

It’s astounding.

Have you ever seen those Verizon Wireless Network commercials where the guy in the goofy glasses is standing behind various cell phone users with an endless network of experts right behind him? That’s what I feel like today. And you know what? I’m grateful.

Active members of the Cedar City Area Chamber of Commerce know what it’s like to associate with people who are strong, smart, tested, experienced professionals who want to succeed. Life’s setbacks rarely hold them back for long and every success is evident in the demeanor of every individual who joins this group of independent thinkers with common goals. It’s engaging, stimulating, , nurturing, educational, encouraging, exhausting and life-saving.
                I genuinely feel the power of these people as if they were literally standing behind me. They seem to be all within arms’ reach – all at the ready to assist me. I call on them constantly and (if I’m lucky) they call on me. Through the chamber of commerce I have found friendships that never would have found me had I remained in my own limited circle of loved ones.

I have insurance agents, financial advisors, investment specialists, bankers, mechanics, energy experts, doctors, nurses, massage therapists, yoga instructors, counselors, car salesmen, retailers, cooks, servers, business advisors, educators, marketing experts, computer geniuses, writers, reporters, politicians, disc jockeys, homemakers, scrapbookers, nutritionists, masons, carpet layers and so much more in my network. Most of all, I have friends who have come to accept me and sometimes endear me for and in spite of my eccentricities.

As we breeze into “the most wonderful time of the year” and unavoidably the New Year, I hope you will consider your own network and consider joining mine. I hope you will resolve to rub elbows with people who are greater than you are. I hope you will surround yourself with people who expect more of you and yet always expect the most of themselves. In this amazing, crazy world of lightning speed technology sometimes you just have to take the time to get up, get out and reconnect with humans through handshakes and friendly hugs.

I do, and every day, I’m grateful.