gratitude | Julie Saffrin

How to Feed a Starving Dream

August 8, 2012 • Julie Saffrin • 2 Comments

Kathy Brunner, author of Finding Your Fire, and I are a bit like Helene Hanff and Frank Doel in the book, 84, Charing Cross Road, a story I tell in BlessBack: Thank Those Who Shaped Your Life. (The movie version of this book is charming and worth your time as it features Sir Anthony Hopkins and Anne Bancroft.) You can read about Helene and Frank by purchasing BlessBack, the book’s paperback edition here or get the e-book for Kindle readers edition FREE from Wednesday August 8 to Friday August 10 here. Kathy and I have never met in person and I don’t know that we will.…

Come join me at The Refine Conference September 21 to 22 in Bloomington, Minnesota

August 1, 2012 • Julie Saffrin • Leave a Comment

If you have followed BlessBack’s blog, you know that BlessBack’s mission is to encourage people to give a BlessBack, change your life, change the world, and that one of my goals in life is to help people recognize how important they are to the world by using the power of gratitude to thank the significant people in their lives. Last week I met a woman, Teri Johnson, who so believes in helping women lead empowered lives that she put together The Refine Conference (www.TheRefineConference.com) September 21 and 22, 2012 at the DoubleTree Hilton in Bloomington, Minnesota, a national conference to help women become…

A BlessBack Interview

July 24, 2012 • Julie Saffrin • Leave a Comment

$4.99 for your Kindle! Order HERE. I’m still celebrating the eBook release of BlessBack: Thank Those Who Shaped Your Life. Today I’m featured on author Karen Baney’s blog. Get to know the story behind BlessBack and a little about my journey. Here’s the link. I know Karen would love your taking the time to leave her a comment if you liked the blog post. As always, thank you for taking the time to stop and read my posts. I appreciate all of you who have written me. Julie Saffrin Follow BlessBack’s Facebook Fan Page here. Follow BlessBack (@blessback) on Twitter here.…

Rope Holders

July 22, 2012 • Julie Saffrin • Leave a Comment

I awoke with the memory of a woman I haven’t seen in 37 years. I wondered why I woke up with her on my mind. Once I dated my BlessBack letter, I understood. July 2, 2012 marked the 11th year that my father passed away. How like God to prompt me to write a BlessBack in a missing-you state-of-mind to a woman whose husband went missing in October 2011 and wasn’t found until six months later on the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday 2012. You might think that because I wrote BlessBack: Thank Those Who Shaped Your Life…

Review of My Scripture Journal: Gratitude by Heather Bixler

July 19, 2012 • Julie Saffrin • 5 Comments

For my summer devotional read, I am using My Scripture Journal: Gratitude by Heather Bixler and enjoying it. On July 17, 2012 this book is available on Amazon for free. Click here to download it instantly! My Scripture Journal: Gratitude’s format is so simple that it might cause one to consider it trite or maybe even not worth the time. But if you are looking for a short guide that allows you to explore Scripture, one that does not spoon-feed you answers, then this book/journal is for you. Benefits of this guide: First, the format is easy to do. Bixler…

A BlessBack Review From England

June 20, 2012 • Julie Saffrin • Leave a Comment

Today I received a lovely review on Amazon from a thrice-published British author. I’m humbled . . . and yes, I’m going to say it, gobsmacked. Here’s what Sue Russell (writing as S. L. Russell) had to say about BlessBack: ‘BlessBack’contains a beautiful idea: that of thinking back over one’s life and thanking in a very positive way those who have had some good influence on us or done us a kindness. “Be causal,” Julie Saffrin says. Our actions can have a ripple effect beyond our expectations. The idea of happiness coming from a sense of connectedness, compassion, a desire to…

Bloomington Sun Current editor, Mike Hanks, gives a BlessBack

June 18, 2012 • Julie Saffrin • Leave a Comment

For years I worked at writing BlessBack: Thank Those Who Shaped Your Life, hoping people who read it would be moved to write BlessBacks of their own. But never did I think I’d read about a newspaper editor doing so. But that is what happened this week. Mike Hanks, the editor of the Bloomington Sun-Current, interviewed me in early June 2012 to do a story on BlessBack and highlight the Bloomington stories within it. One of those whom he attempted to contact was Harry Driste, a custodian during my elementary years at River Ridge. But Harry, who was still an…

BlessBack story in Bloomington Sun Current

June 7, 2012 • Julie Saffrin • Leave a Comment

Today was a surreal day. I went to Harry Driste’s funeral in Paynesville, Minn. at Paynesville Lutheran Church. I went to honor and pay my respects to Harry, 101, a favorite janitor from my elementary years at River Ridge elementary in Bloomington who later became connected to our family. Just before the funeral service began, I met many wonderful people who loved Harry, including his wife, Viola. They married when Harry was 85. “Harry asked the Lord to give us five good years. He gave us 16.” His previous first wife to whom he was married for 56 years, Mabel, preceded him in death, as…

Harry Driste, a hero to Bloomington River Ridge Elementary kids

June 5, 2012 • Julie Saffrin • 4 Comments

Black and white picture: Harry Driste receiving a plaque and being presented with a tree planted in his honor at his retirement as janitor at River Ridge Elementary School in Bloomington, Minnesota. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand. — Woodrow Wilson Every once in a while someone comes along and changes your life. Harry Driste was one of those people. Harry passed away on June 3, 2012 at the age of 101 1/2. Until two days before his death, Harry was alert, making jokes and reaching into his storehouse of…

BlessBack, A Dream of Mine

June 4, 2012 • Julie Saffrin • Leave a Comment

February 2012 Blog BlessBack, This Dream Made Real “ … there should be long obedience in the same direction; there thereby results, and has always resulted in the long run, something which has made life worth living.” — Friedrich Neitzsche, Beyond Good and Evil February, 2012 I am sitting here, like I do most daylight hours, trying to create a worthwhile combination of words — words that will evoke meaning and emotion. Words that will make someone’s life different, if only for one hour. Seems like I have sat here for years, typing in the same direction, trying to make…

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