Anne Kubitsky receives lots of postcards. Lots and lots of postcards. That’s not just because the artist and writer from Old Lyme, Connecticut, has so many friends. It’s because she ­invited others to show their gratitude by mailing it to her. When she launched the Look for the Good Project a year ago, Kubitsky distributed postcards in parks, libraries and cafés in her community, asking people to “write or draw something they are grateful for.” Within weeks, she had received cards—“many of them very beautiful,” she emphasizes, from all over the world.

Kubitsky is convinced that gratitude makes us resilient, ­discerning and able to bounce back. “I think it also gives people a sense of grace,” she adds. “It clarifies your motivation and moves you beyond toxic thoughts, giving you a wonderful feeling of abundance.” She also points out that “gratitude enables you to identify with something larger.” Kubitsky has a background in marine biology and ­became ­inspired to work on this project by the story of a whale that was ­rescued from fishing-line entrapment off the coast of California in 2006. The 50-ton humpback whale returned to the place where she was trapped shortly after it was cut loose and nuzzled the divers that had rescued her softly in the chest. “Obviously grateful,” Kubitsky says. A book featuring a selection of the postcards Kubitsky received will be coming out in the months ahead. | Find out more: lookforthegoodproject.org