Gratefulness. It's a mouthful of a word; most of us say "gratitude" instead, but the words mean the same thing: To be thankful, and acknowledge a good deed done you by another. These days, gratefulness can be hard to come by. Please and thank you used to be the first and last words in courteous discourse, but in our self-absorbed, busy-busy world, they seem to have gone the way of the pen pal and the pay phone. Some take good deeds for granted; do that enough, and they call you an ingrate. You are ungrateful. Most often, I notice a lack of gratefulness when I let someone make a left turn and they don't give "the wave" in thanks, but you can find it everywhere. If you watch TV (a dangerous activity, if you want to remain grateful) you'll notice that advertisers are constantly telling us all the great things we deserve. Now, there are certain things we agree that everyone deserves. The founders of this country decided to enumerate three of them in the Preamble to the Constitution: namely Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. But others whisper, "Don't you deserve the best?" Well, we work hard, don't we? Why don't we deserve the best? Where's our red carpet? Don't you know who I am? As you can see, it's a dangerous road to start walking. When you deserve something, you don't want to work for it. And anything worth having is worth working hard for. That's one thing I learned from the author of this book. She's one of the hardest working people I know. With accomplishments that to many of us will sound mythological. She doesn't like to toot her own horn, and I'll respect that. You are about to read stories of gratefulness from someone who has achieved great things, even though she was told You Can't from the very beginning. You can't make the Honor Roll. You can't be a U.S. Marine. You can't run an ultra marathon. You can't become a pro fighter. Jody-Lynn proved all those statements wrong. By working hard, focusing on her goals, and never quitting. But she did not do it alone. We have a mythology of success in this country: Everyone succeeds alone. It sure feels that way, once you succeed. Because of all the hard work! But very few succeed without the support of at least one other person, and usually those helpers are so humble they would never step forward to say so. It takes a special, reflective, and strong person to honor the people who encouraged them in their struggle. And Jody-Lynn Reicher is one of them. This book puts her gratefulness in writing.
About the Author: Jody Lynn Reicher served in the Marine Corps, ran competititvely in forty, 26.2 mile marathons. She raced over forty ultramarathons, competed in grappling, and is currently a pro MMA fighter. She began running in 1976, and then when a spinal injury and tragedy kept her from her goal of Olympic level marathon running, she set her eyes on ultramarathons. Eventually running 212 miles in 55 hours and 49 minutes for charity in 2006, and becoming a three time Badwater Ultramarathon Veteran Finisher. She has organized several charity runs, set the Women's 24 Hour North American Treadmill record at age 42. And in 2008 she was conferred "The Chapel of the Four Chaplains Award" for selfless service, a national award which commemorates four chaplains aboard the U.S.A.T. Dorchester who gave their life jackets to soldiers in their care after the ship was struck by a German torpedo. She trained in Kachin Bando under Phil Dunlap of Advanced Fighting Systems and continues to compete professionally in MMA events all over the country. Jody-Lynn is now trained by Rafael Melendez. After Jody-Lynn spent ten years in the corporate world, she then became a massage therapist . Jody-Lynn is now a licensed massage therapist and the proprietor of Fine Tuning Therapy, Inc. She resides in New Jersey with her husband Norman of over thirty years and their two daughters.