Barb Bakalyar is thankful.
And she counts her blessings every day.
She is a cancer survivor and prayer warrior.
Bakalyar is so thankful for God's blessings in her life that she came up with an idea to give others an opportunity to express their thankfulness for their blessings as well.
"Gratefully living is a Web site that gives people an opportunity to give thanks for all the things they have been blessed with an opportunity for them to go on the Web site and leave their prayers of gratitude," Bakalyar said. "In so doing, they will help me build the world's largest online grateful prayer list."
Bakalyar invites people to log onto her Web site, gratefullyliving.com, read the prayers of gratitude for whatever people are grateful for and put in their own prayer for what they are grateful for. Bakalyar is hoping people will also put in where they are from, as she would like to know the reach of her efforts. Then, all they do is enter their e-mail address and submit the form.
So far, 242 prayers have been entered since the Gratefully Living site started about a month ago, but the prayers entered continue to grow. Anyone who can access the World Wide Web can add a prayer of gratitude.
"When the prayers of gratitude are entered into the site, they go through a filter system to prevent profanity or any other inappropriate language from being placed on the Gratefully Living prayer list," Bakalyar said. "People can also go from there to the grateful prayer chain page and look at all the prayers people have put on the site that they are thankful for. They are listed by the alphabet, from A to Z."
Bakalyar started working on her Gratefully Living Web site in November 2007. She went live with the site on March 1 of this year.
"A couple of years ago, I was on noon break from the Avera Worthington Specialty Clinic where I work," she said. "I was down by Lake Okabena and was sitting there praying and meditating. I like to go down there every day and just sit there reading, praying and meditating about all the things I am grateful for. I remember one day when I didn't get a chance to go to the lake. So I was thinking with so many things to be grateful for, how could I remind myself so I wouldn't forget all of them? The Gratefullyliving Prayer Chain Bracelet is a bracelet I created. The bracelet consists of the letters of the alphabet and the beads with my own gratefully living charm on it. That is the fundraising part of it. Selling of the bracelets will help pay to maintain the Web site and will be an opportunity for me to give back."
Bakalyar's bracelet ended up being a project two years in the making.
"I went to Sioux Falls to see some people there about creating the bracelet, but what they came up with was too expensive," she said. "I wanted a bracelet people could afford. Now 'The Gallery' in Worthington is making the bracelets for me."
That bracelet is available online at the Gratefully Living Web site. If ordered from Bakalyar directly, a person can get one in just a few days
"I will be selling other things on my Web site too," she said. "Ragged Glory, here in Lakefield, is helping me with Gratefully Living shirts and bags that say 'I am gratefully living.' I learned about trade marking and have trademarked Gratefully Living and the Gratefully Living Web site prayer chain. I have copywrited the bracelet."
Fitzloff Photography is also working on a photo for Bakalyar that will be entitled "Gratefully Living."
"I decided to do this to share how it helped and changed me to be a happier, more giving and kind person," Bakalyar said. "This is a gift from God. We all are given a gift, whether we choose to do something with it or not.
"People are free to go on the Gratefully Living Web site to see what other people have entered that they are grateful for," she said. "This is a work in progress that I hope will bless others."