Hi everyone!  We are thankful for your continued support and your unbelievable ability to continue pushing forward. In fact, we're thankful for many things.  That’s because, even during 2020 and so far in 2021, good things have happened and we know that there are quite a few benefits to gratitude.

For example, research suggests that gratitude can be good for your health.  Now that’s something we can get onboard with! According to studies, grateful people feel fewer aches and pains and generally report that they feel better than the curmudgeons out there.

In addition, being grateful is good for relationships. Since our Founder, Kebby was raised in the South, she, like all of you, understand that saying “thank you” is good manners and, not surprisingly, being appreciative does wonders for friendships. I mean, who doesn’t like hearing “thank you”?

To be fair, gratefulness wasn’t the first emotion that came to mind when we first reflected on the past year.

To that point, we came across a story on a site called Quora, recently where someone asked people to try and describe the year in two words.  Here were a few of the descriptions that stood out:

  • How Cruel
  • Too Long
  • The End
  • Science Deniers
  • Stay Home
  • Dumpster Fire

2020 year in review

There were many others, but most were just too profane to repeat.  In fact, as we’ve waded through the year, the words of the late Astronomer Carl Sagan came to mind. In a video called “The Pale Blue Dot”, he showed a picture of our beautiful planet viewed from deep space and said:

“Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.” 

Earth from Space

The dot is Earth from deep space 

So, this year it took a conscious effort to look for opportunities to show gratitude. Fortunately, when we sat down to think, we found plenty! 

First, we have to be thankful for all the nurses, doctors and front-line workers who put their personal safety at risk to help those who were impacted by COVID-19 and other health issues.  While most of us were hunkering down and isolating, these brave women and men, "rode to the sound of the guns" and put themselves in harm's way.

Second, we're grateful for the people who advocated for social change. We love the quote from Martin Luther King, Jr. where he said "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice" but we know that this progress doesn't just happen.  People drive the change and many of you were out there at the tip of the spear.  Speaking of "spears", we know from personal experience that there's risk when someone voices an opinion and we can only imagine how many spears you all took when you marched, posted and in other ways said that we as nation should listen to the better angels of our nature. 

Third, we were about to say finally, but this is in no way the final thing we're grateful for, but in the interest of time, we'll pause here.  We are grateful for family. These are the people who tend to know who we really are as a person. They know that we're not perfect and they love us anyway. They laugh at our jokes even when they're a bit corny and they are there when times are tough. 

From time-to-time in our thank you notes that go with orders, we say "thank you for being part of the Coeur family" and we mean it.  You all are a part of our family and it's hard to explain how grateful we are for that fact.

So, folks, we sincerely wish you health, happiness and many other things for which you can be Grateful!

Your extended Family at Coeur

Reginald Holden