Greetings! My name is Shoshana Frumkin, and I have been committed to health, healing and transformation most of my life. What drives me is a deep desire for us to heal our wounds together, recover our connection to the power of love, healing our hearts and health while enjoying meaningful connection and taking care of our planet.

On Tuesday morning I attended my first all-employee meeting at Gracias Madre; this was a time for the staff of Cafe Gratitude to come together, learn about challenges facing the company, share concerns and events from each others’ lives, and celebrate our collective dedication to the values that make our organization what it is.
I had been looking forward to this meeting, and with it, the chance to meet many members of the Cafe Gratitude family. But although I was excited, it was early in the morning, and I was coming down with a cold, so my attention soon began to wander. I began to shift irritably on my hard, uncomfortable wooden chair, waiting for the meeting to end. I was trying my best to appreciate the loving conversation taking place around me, but I was really starting to feel ill. But then, suddenly, something caught my attention. Chandra, our operations manager, was talking about the values we hold dear, including organic agriculture and veganism.

Veganism! The word caused me to lift my head and start listening again. I’ve been a vegan for three years now, and a vegetarian for all of my twenty-three; a diet free of animal products is essential for me. And yet in light of this, and even though I’ve also been involved in promoting these diets amongst my peers for several years, I had almost forgotten that this is a core tenet of Cafe Gratitude. A few days prior I had attended the Abounding River Workshop, where I learned the spiritual practices that guide our business, and in doing so, realized the multi-faceted ways the business supports its people and builds a vibrant community based in love, gratitude, and transformation. I came to see Cafe Gratitude as a place primarily concerned with the well-being of all those who choose to work there.

But if that wasn’t enough--a restaurant chain that supports all employees with a well-practices set of tools to enhance emotional, physical and spiritual well-being--this restaurant chain also serves 100% vegan food! And it’s not just some wacky hippie cafe in the bay area--this franchise is exploding, with multiple new locations slated to open in Southern California over the next few years, and a Kansas City, MO restaurant is in the works as well!
I had been so focused on the cafe’s concern for humanity that I forgot how that concern is only one piece of a larger compassionate puzzle. Cafe Gratitude’s ethics show kindness to humans, animals, and the environment as well. I looked around me at the 40 people sitting in a circle, and almost laughed out loud, because most of them looked nothing like your stereotypical vegan. It was a joyful laugh: how wonderful to see vegan food being embraced by all different types of people. After all, compassion is not easily boxed into one category or another; we need not be compassionate only towards the Earth, or to non-human creatures, or to one another. A life’s work can be made by extending our circle of compassion as far as it will go.

Tomorrow our living room area of our central offices will be filled with open minded powerful workshop participants.  Every month we hold one workshop where Terces and Matthew Engelhart share what they've learned and what they're practicing in their lives.  In these workshops, they open their hearts, speak authentically and transparently, and spend the entire weekend expressing what they've created in the many communities they've founded.  People from all of the world come to these workshops and we know that it's a challenge for many to come, stay for the weekend, and to listen without filters, defenses or resistance.  I'm here to tell you that we know that you've got your own methods, that you've learned how to survive, what works and what doesn't.  We know that you've got it together... and these workshops are an opportunity for to release what isn't working.  How's your relationship with money?  Do you fear it, hate it, depend on it...?  If you struggle with finances, don't trust money or feel confined by it, the Abounding River Workshop (this September) might be another path that works better for you.  Think of these workshops as invitations to another way... not as "the way".  We don't offer you the truth, these are tools that we like and we're referring them to others because they work so well for us.  Our last workshop was The Abounding River and we brought it to Manhattan with great reviews.  I encourage you to try out some of Matthew & Terces's books and see what practices they offer work for you in your life.  Remember that it takes a little discomfort to create a true shift.  Whatever you're stuck on right now has its payoff (otherwise you wouldn't be stuck there, right?)