I’ve come to believe that gratitude is more than a feeling. It is a way of seeing the world and, ultimately, a way of serving it.
Gratitude causes us to notice.
We notice the people who quietly show up every day. The neighbor helping a neighbor. The teacher staying a little longer. The volunteer giving away a Saturday. The first responder answering another call. The parent doing everything possible to give their children a better future. We notice the people whose quiet acts of service hold a community together.
And when we truly notice people, we begin to notice their needs.
That is where gratitude becomes service.
I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to know this community in a way few people ever get to. I meet people from every corner of our city and am invited into moments most people never see. I celebrate with people in moments of great joy, but I also see the struggle. I hear their stories. I sit with people in grief. Through all of it, I get to know them as people.
That has changed me.
It reminds me that the greatest privilege of leadership is not being seen. It is seeing others, knowing them, and having the opportunity to serve them.
Gratitude also keeps me grounded. It doesn’t ask us to ignore what is difficult. It reminds us not to become so consumed by what is wrong that we stop seeing what is good.
And there is so much good.
I believe our future depends, in part, on our willingness to recognize that good in one another. To listen. To help. To serve. To say thank you. To give more than we take.
Because when gratitude becomes service, it becomes something even more powerful: light.
I believe deeply in being the light. Not because I am unaware of the darkness, but because we have a choice about the energy we carry into the world.
We can add to the anger or bring kindness. We can add to the noise or listen. We can point at the darkness or bring some light into it.
And light doesn’t have to be loud. Sometimes it is a phone call, a meal, an hour spent listening, a neighbor helping a neighbor, or a simple thank you.
Perhaps gratitude is how we keep that light alive within ourselves. It reminds us of what we’ve been given and challenges us to give some of that goodness back.
Being the light isn’t pretending darkness doesn’t exist. It is choosing what we bring into it.
Gratitude. Kindness. Hope. Love. Service.
And if enough of us make that choice, we can do more than see the light in our community.
We can be it.
Mayor Benjamin Nadolski
Ogden City
“The greatest privilege of leadership is not being seen. It is seeing others, knowing them, and having the opportunity to serve them.”