Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, September 24, 1993                   TAG: 9404140002
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Wendi Gibson Richert
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

MAYBE YOU ARE A SAINT

Are you slow to take offense and quick to forgive?

Do you keep commitments and do what you say you are going to do?

If you can answer ``yes'' to these and 14 other questions on the Society for Grateful Living's gratitude questionnaire, you're a candidate for sainthood.

At least that's what the society's founders, James Barr and Elizabeth Severino of Cherry Hill, N.J., surmise.

Their much-obliged fellowship is dedicated to helping us, the thankless and ungrateful, live happier lives by recognizing our ``personal abundance.''

And just how are we so abundant?

Barr explains: ``Most of us, thankfully, are already wealthy or abundant. We may not be wealthy in a monetary or material sense, but that's only one measure of abundance. When we evaluate our real resourceswe realize just how rich we really are.''

OK, so you're rich. But are you grateful?

Do you say ``thank you'' to those who help you? Do you write ``thank you'' notes? Do you tell those close to you that you love them? Do you think other people's welfare is as important as your own? Do you help friends and family without being asked? Do you surprise them with unexpected gifts?

Yes answers, indeed, put you on the road to sainthood, according to the SGL. A few no's make you a simply grateful person. A lot of them means you should start counting your blessings. Now.

If you'd like a complete questionnaire or other information from SGL, call (609) 667-7629.

And be sure to say ``thank you.''