Have you ever thought about how your seemingly insignificant life events have formed who you are? How intriguing it is to look back and discover how your current life path is directly, or indirectly, connected to your past! Emerging present moments and fading past events surprisingly, yet naturally, bring gratitude in life.

From the ordinary to the unusual, this book chronicles a little girl’s journey through the joyous ups and painful downs of searching for life’s gift of gratitude. Life’s important lessons were revealed to her through everything from positive influences found in unexpected teachers, injustice in school from pre-kindergarten to college, ordinary friends around her daily life, unfairness inherent in some Japanese traditions, typical family dynamics, uncovering family secrets, fantasies of being French, and the bursting forth of an unspeakable voice.

In Gift of Gratitude, author Claire E. Hallinan shares her gratitude for the gifts that she was given by her past: the ability to think of all experiences as positive, the strengths that she determined to be resilient, and the future that she believed to be hopeful through her unique learning experiences. It is these gifts that she is able to share in her very own classroom as a teacher today.