Father Steve: Hey, welcome to another episode of Open Door Policy, where each episode we meet with a different joyful missionary, disciple to see how that person is unleashing the gospel in the Archdiocese of Detroit. Today, we're blessed to have Nicholas Kristof with us, Nicholas, how are you? Nicholas Kristof: I'm doing fantastic today. How are you? Father Steve: I'm great. And as always the real star of the show, Danielle Center. Danielle, how's life? Danielle: Life is good. How are you? Had any graces lately? Father Steve: I had. Today is the feast day of St. John Paul the ... Not the feast day, but the birthday of St. John Paul II. I have just been really grateful, praying about what a gift John Paul was to the church and in my own life and had some chance to pray and think about how he helped shape my own discipleship of Jesus and my priesthood. So I've been super grateful. Danielle: Have you ever seen him? Father Steve: You mean did he see me? Danielle: Yeah. Father Steve: I did. I saw him in Detroit and in Toronto and then I saw him in Rome as well. So three times. Danielle: Wow. That's cool. Father Steve: Yeah. How about you, Danielle? Danielle: I'm going to give a shout out to someone who might not even be a listener, but this past ... You know, it's spring time so we've had rainy day, sunny day, rainy day, sunny day. On a sunny day, I have a tandem. I bet the listeners don't know that. Jesse, who is my boyfriend and I went on this tandem and we wrote 13 miles on this rails to trails in the freaking middle of nowhere and got a flat tire. We were like North, North, North, super sunk, didn't know what to do, I called my brother because I thought that his in-laws lived around there and he was like, "No, but my buddy, Kevin has a summer home up there. Let's call him." So in the middle of a pandemic, this guy comes out. Doesn't even really know me and rescues me and Jesse from the middle of nowhere. So shout out to someone who's helpful. That was my grace. Father Steve: Named Kevin. Danielle: Named Kevin. Good work, Kevin. Father Steve: Hey Nicholas, we're going to get to know you a little bit through doing some rapid fire questions. So you're ready? Nicholas Kristof: Awesome. I'm ready. Father Steve: All right. We've got 10 of them for you. So I'm going to give them to you and then Danielle will break them open afterwards. So let me ask you, what was your first job? Nicholas Kristof: My first job was a handyman at an engineering facility. Father Steve: All right. What's the most beautiful church you've been to. Nicholas Kristof: It was in Australia. It was called St. Matthew's Catholic Church at Logan home. Father Steve: What's the most recent song you have stuck in your head. Nicholas Kristof: I've been killing Jason Mraz songs lately and he has a song called Quiet. Father Steve: In what fictional world would you want to live? Nicholas Kristof: Anything in relation to where they can teleport Father Steve: What's your favorite breakfast food? Nicholas Kristof: A fruit smoothie. Father Steve: What was the location of one of your most powerful encounters with God? Nicholas Kristof: Brisbane, Australia. Father Steve: What Bible verse do you really love? Nicholas Kristof: Isaiah. Isaiah Chapter 53. Father Steve: Right? Suffering servant. And who's the most famous person you've met? Nicholas Kristof: David Blaine the magician. David Blaine: Just give me a quarter. Father Steve: Who is your hero? Nicholas Kristof: My father. Father Steve: And what is your favorite book you've ever read? Nicholas Kristof: Other than the Bible, my favorite book I've ever read would be a book called Traction. Father Steve: Awesome. Danielle: All right., I'm going to come back. So Australia theme came through a few times. How long were you in Australia and what was going on that brought you there? Nicholas Kristof: I lived in Australia for two year towards the end of my college degree. All the opportunities in front of me here in the US were just nothing that I thought was going to be my purpose. I was playing division one college soccer at the time, and never in a million years would've thought that soccer could have taken me to the next level. This door opened towards the end of that senior season for me to play overseas. And I said, you know what? None of the opportunities here are what is going to be my purpose. I'll take the only door that isn't one of those, and that's to sign a contract and move 9,155 miles away to a continent where I didn't know a soul. Danielle: And whereabouts were you in Australia? Nicholas Kristof: I was on the East Coast in a city called Brisbane. And so that is really just smack right in the middle. And so the first question people ask is, "Oh, is that close to Sydney or the Sydney opera house?" And it is about a 12 hour drive North of Sydney. Australia is really big, but it kind of looks small on a globe, but it's really close to the equivalent of driving from North New York down to the bottom of Florida. Danielle: I went to Australia for a world youth day back in what, 2008 ish. Nicholas Kristof: Oh nice. Danielle: So I've been there too, but I was around Sydney. So in Brisbane you had an experience. What was that? Speaker 5: So it was moving to a country and continent where you don't know soul is I don't know as tough as it sounds, I guess if it sounds tough, but I was not prepared for how much effort it was going to take to build a life from scratch. And we're talking new routines, new friends, find a cell phone, find a car, find the coffee shop that you go to when you need to get a warm drink to warm you up. Everything starting from scratch. At the beginning, all you have is yourself and your God. And I have never been closer or felt closer to God than in that time, when it really was just me on my own with my Bible on Friday nights, just really pouring into the word and on that journey with him. Danielle: Okay. That's super beautiful. So teleportation, does that have something to do with the fact that it takes a million years to fly to Australia? Nicholas Kristof: Yeah. It could be a part of it. Movement is so inefficient. If we could just be where we need to be when we need to be there, imagine how much more we could get done in there, wherever there is. Danielle: Wow. We are so much like. I don't really enjoy walking because I'm like this is ... I love walking like hiking, but I'm like, dude, I could be running right now. Yeah. Okay. And then your father, can you tell me a little bit about him? Why is he your hero? Nicholas Kristof: Yeah, he is an amazing example and has always been an amazing example to me of what service and sacrifice means. He has worked so hard and still works to this day, and provided me with so many open doors to live the life that I wanted to live. If I had been born into a different circumstance, I may not have been able to do anything to get in a conversation with you guys. Just the opportunities that I've been given because of his sacrifices are tremendous and I feel a tremendous amount of responsibility to pay back what he's given me to the world. Danielle: Okay. One last question. What's your best fruit smoothie recipe? Nicholas Kristof: So you're going to want to throw in some Kiwi, some banana, some mango and some blueberries, and then the subtle avocado and spinach. And I know that you might say you, eww, avocado and spinach, greens, but you don't even taste it. Danielle: No, I love greens. Nicholas Kristof: The fruit overpowers it and you still get the health benefits of that avocado and the smoothie. Throw some ice and some water, blend it up and you're out the door. Danielle: Thank you. Thank you, so much. Father Steve: All right. So Nicholas, now that we've gotten to know you a little bit, tell us about your relationship with Christ and how your Catholic faith became important to you. Nicholas Kristof: Yeah, absolutely. Everyone connects to things in a different way. And, it's a two part journey and one just figuring out, the method or how you connect to something and then starting to connect with that thing. And for me, my journey with Christ really started when I started to pore into reading the Bible, getting close to the word. I'm incredibly cerebral. I'm the escape room junkie. I love brain puzzles and mind twisters and all those things. And so I love puzzles and solving things and seeing things fit together in a larger picture. When I started to read the Bible and just started to see how incredible of a book it was written by all these different authors at different times, but these pieces fit together and these messages were consistent, that was to me, were really firing in the cerebral part of my brain and really showed me that, wow, there's just a way bigger plan here and I need to learn more and I need to really, really dive into my faith. And so I really think God found me in a way that I connect, which is through a cerebral kind of entry there and learning from that- Father Steve: How old were you Nicholas, when this kind of first started to grow in your life? Nicholas Kristof: It really was when I was in college at Oakland University. I definitely had had a relationship with Jesus prior to then. Grew up, went to Catholic school, Our Lady of Victory and then Detroit Catholic Central High School. And of course, there was a relationship with Jesus throughout that time. In college was when it started to grow more. And maybe that was also a product of myself growing more. And I think all the kind of foundations had been laid. And then when I moved to Australia and really was on my own, I really think the foundation was solid for the fire just to be set ablaze. And that was when things really ignited when I was on my own. Danielle: You know, in the last question of rapid fire, we say, what's your favorite book? And sometimes people try to say Bible and I'm like, wait a second. That is a collection of books. So, in this collection of history and poetry and song, did you have a particular book that really started to strike you or was it kind of the whole piece? Nicholas Kristof: Well, I'm extremely fascinated by looking at the prophetic books, looking at Daniel to Revelation, et cetera. There's so many puzzles there, but the story of Job to me is incredibly powerful. And I definitely feel some days like a Job in the sense that, Oh my gosh, I've lived such a great life so far. And I thank God every day for putting a hedge of protection about me and the people that I love, but there are some days that I wonder just, God, I just pray that I would still be as faithful to you if my situation turns the way Job's situation turns. Danielle: Because you interact quite a bit with people in harder situations. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Nicholas Kristof: I do. When I left out for Australia to find my purpose, I didn't know where I was going to find it, but I ended up finding it working in the nonprofit world and in charity. And so today I'm the Executive Director and founder of a charity called Fleece & Thank You where every single day I'm connecting with kids in the hospital who are going through an incredibly tough and unfair time, and connecting with their families who are going through the darkest time in their life. Certainly being around that environment and consistently is a surefire way for you to count your blessings. There's also some challenges that come with working in that environment, compassion, fatigue, et cetera. But for me, I've definitely seen situations and I'm incredibly lucky to not be in those situations personally, I just working in a sphere where I'm able to do my best to try to help. Danielle: Well, you're accompanying people. That's a big thing. Sorry. Go ahead, Father Steve. Father Steve: No. So just tell us a little bit about what Fleece & Thank You does. Nicholas Kristof: Yeah, absolutely. When I was moving home from Australia in 2015, I knew that I wanted to start something to help kids in the hospital. From working with kids I knew how badly disconnected kids going through hospital treatment journey are. How that isolation is extremely traumatic on their psychosocial self. I was meeting with kids who were beating battles with cancer, but they were worse off mentally leaving that hospital room than when they started. And I said, I just want to do something to help. As I landed in Michigan, I received a text message from my twin sister, who at the time was a pediatric oncology nurse at Mott Children's Hospital in Ann Arbor, and she sent me this text that said, "Hey, Nick, when you're at home and you had a free minute, you should make a blanket for a kid in the hospital. Just a blanket." I'm aggressively curious. I started asking tons of questions. "Well, how many blankets do you need? How often do you need them?" And her answers back to me were, "Well, we always need blankets. They dramatically changed the hospital room, and we never have enough." And I'm scratching my head at one of the best children's hospitals in the country wouldn't have enough of something that they need. So that day I picked up the phone and I called every children's hospital and unit in the state of Michigan. And everyone gave me the same answers. They said, "Nick, we always need blankets. They dramatically change the room. We never have enough." And I said, look, this is not rocket science. I don't know what I'm supposed to do with my life, but I know I can start this. I know I can just figure out how many kids get sick every year and make that many blankets. And even more than just the color and the comfort that I wanted to guarantee to be on that hospital bed, I wanted to give these kids connections. So I developed a video message technology that allows the blanket maker to make a video that goes along with that blanket. The child who receives that blanket can watch that video of who made their blanket. And the coolest part is they can actually send a message back to the blanket maker. Danielle: That's so cool. Father Steve: Yeah. That's an awesome way to not just provide for the material needs that these kids have, but also the relationship between the person who makes it and the person receiving it. Our faith has meant to be not just kind of like, hey, here's a material resource that you can take and go on your way, but it's meant to point to a deeper reality about how God fills our heart with relationships so that we can know the Lord's infinite love for us. So that's an awesome organization, Nicholas, Nicholas Kristof: Thank you very much. Danielle: One thing that is really, I know to be true in my life is we, can you show up, so like quote unquote, help someone. A lot of times, they end up helping you and teaching you things. In what ways have you seen like growth and change in yourself through all this? Nicholas Kristof: The work that I do has for me provide an amazing definition of resilience. To meet families who are going through the darkest time and still have their head held high, to meet kids who have been through something that no kid should have to go through. They're having childhood taken away from them for years on end. Resilience is a lesson that I have been taught over and over through the work that we get to do at Fleece & Thank You. Danielle: Do you have any dreams for the future? Do you still hope to grow or are you looking in new directions? What's your plan for this? Nicholas Kristof: So Fleece & Thank You we know that in the state of Michigan, there are 30,000 kids a year that go into the hospital and have to stay overnight. And so we're on an annual mission to make 30,000 blankets every single year, year after year. So that every kid across the state, no matter what time of year they get sick, no matter where in the state they are, there's a colorful blanket and video message waiting for them. And from there, we're going to be the first state to really have figured out the playbook for how you blanket an entire state. We'll take that playbook and we'll take it to the Midwest, which needs about 151,000 blankets. And then from there, we'll take that regional playbook and take it to other regions and eventually get to the entire country, which needs about 964,000 blankets so that every kid in the United States who gets sick and goes in for treatment is guaranteed to have color, comfort and connection waiting on the bed for them. Father Steve: Just to speak another word about your testimony here Nicholas, you talked about how it was going to Australia, not really knowing anyone and how that helped you grow in your faith. What an incredible opportunity it is for ... When we're put in situations that we don't expect, or we're kind of outside of our comfort zone, that God can speak that word to us and challenge us and have us grow for that moment. But also so that afterwards, we can be about his mission. To me, I hear you telling this story about how going to Australia and following something you love something you wanted to do for a short period of time, how that was a bit of a crucible in which God kind of grew your faith. So that as you came back, you were ready to hear what he might be asking you to do. Nicholas Kristof: Oh yeah, absolutely, and crucible it was at times to leave what you know to be your support system is incredibly tough. What I found toughest is, I'm guilty of having fear of missing out, super bad fear of missing out. There's only so many times that you can say, I'm sorry, I can't be there to where it eventually just gets old in your head. And you're like, really? Am I saying this again? I'm sorry, I can't be at the birthday party. I'm sorry I can't be at Mother's Day. Sorry, I can't be at this holiday. And you really start to feel more and more alone during those times. But thankfully there was a good God for me to turn to. Father Steve: And one of the biggest challenges I would think would be the toilet's going in the opposite direction. Danielle: Oh my gosh. Nicholas Kristof: Oh it's terrible. [crosstalk 00:18:11]. Danielle: Well, we really appreciate you taking the time to share with us a little bit too. Okay. Nicholas, Father Steve, I was thinking, as you were talking Nicholas about these children. I was thinking about a experience that I had in my life about how a child impacted my faith. And I was thinking I could share that and then if you guys want to jump in, go for it. But one time I was teaching children's liturgy at a church. The gospel that week was the one where someone comes to Jesus and says, "What is the greatest commandment?" I was like, all right, with these children, I'm going to review the 10 commandments, and then ask ... Lesson plan was, review 10 commandments, ask them which one they think is the most important, and then come in with Jesus's answer. So I asked these kids, I was like, "Who remembers like the original commandments? What were the first things that God instructed us to do?" And this little girl raised her hand and she said, "To breathe." And I was like, that's true. Like our first commandment was just an invitation to live. Not anything more. So that always kind of stuck with me and kind of impacted the way that I saw God as someone who invites us to live. And I'm thankful for that child's faith. I was just wondering, Nicholas, do you have any experiences like that, of a child who helped impact your faith? Nicholas Kristof: I do. And I thank you for sharing your story. I used to work for Make-A-Wish Australia, which if you haven't heard of Make-A-Wish, they grant wishes for children with life threatening illnesses. There's something called wish granting, which is a meeting where you get to sit down with the child and their family, it's the best meeting ever. Because you just get to hear about their most cherished wish. If it's I want to go to the moon, it's cool. What kind of rocket, what color is it? What's inside the rocket? You're asking all the questions with no filter, just to hear what that is. I was sitting across the table from a 16 year old girl named Chloe and her mother and my fellow wish grantor was to my left and we're getting to know the family, she's telling us about her treatment. And then we get down to the nitty gritty of we say, "Okay Chloe, here we go. What is your most cherished wish?" And she looks at us and says, "I want for my wish to go to the Great Barrier Reef." And her mom had a visible kind of reaction to her saying this. I didn't really know what to say next, because her mom seemed really taken off guard by this answer. And so I just let the moment be. And her mom eventually said, "Sorry for my awkward reaction, but Chloe, are you sure? You hate fish? Why do you want to go the Great Barrier Reef?" And Chloe said, "No, mom, I do." And we said, "Okay, are you sure?" And she said, "Yeah, the first day that I was diagnosed with leukemia, my dad looked me in the eyes and promised me that he would be at every single treatment." And he came to every single doctor's appointment and treatment. And he was at so many that he lost his job. And one of his bucket list items is to go to The Great Barrier Reef. And so to see a selfless girl using her wish to honor her father was an incredibly powerful moment. And it reminds me of another favorite verse, "To whom much is given much is required." Which is a verse I love so much because I think the secular version is to whom much is given much is expected, but there's a huge difference between an expectation or requirement. Things can happen if expectations are let down, but requirements have to happen for other things to happen. And I feel about my life much the way that Chloe felt about her wish, in that I've been given so much and to honor my father, both my earthly father and my heavenly father is a tremendous responsibility. Father Steve: That's awesome, Nicholas. That's great. Danielle, you asked this question, I think of kind of a funny story when I was in Mexico, in seminary, not knowing a lick of Spanish and living with a host family and feeling like, talk about a fish out of water. They had a big family party- Danielle: [crosstalk 00:22:32] so big too. Father Steve: I know. Danielle: Do you fit in Mexico? Father Steve: I look very Mexican. There's this big family party that my host family had and I was at it, and I just remember all the adults talking like in conversations and it was loud and lots of background noise, the impossible language, the impossible circumstance to be able to be in the language. And there's this little five-year-old, this kindergarten girl who was there and she comes up to me and she goes, "Ola" And I said, "Ola." And then I don't know how, but we started, she was telling me her numbers in English- Danielle: Oh my gosh. Father Steve: ... That she was learning in school. And I was telling her the numbers I was learning in Spanish. And I was like, this is where I am right now. This is my level of language competence. But just her kindness, and I've often thought about that. The humility of children and learning, not just language but anything. And certainly this is why Jesus holds up a little child, is there's a kind of openness to being willing to make mistakes. There's a real lack of pride that can hold us from trying new things or entering into new circumstances. The way children kind of break through that, or don't have that built in pride in the way they can learn new things and enter into relationships is a beautiful spiritual lesson for me and I think for all of us about what it means to be children of our father in heaven. Danielle: Yeah. My youngest brother's best friend who he still best friends with in their late 20s. They met when they were five and they were just like, "Hey, do you want to be friends?" Best part of this story is my brother Josh says, "No." "Do you want to be buddies?" And so they ended up being buddies, not friends. But hey, good for that kid. And this step towards relationship. And, we were talking a little bit earlier, Nicholas, that you really believe in the emphasis on the relationship with Jesus and would love to see more growth and development that way for the faithful. Can you talk a little bit to us about that? What's your vision on that? Nicholas Kristof: When it comes to relationships, there's so many cases in the Bible where we learn of people who just didn't do it alone. That to me is one of the most powerful lessons of them all. There's clearly something that God built into human nature, where we want to share with other people, where we want to lean, where we want to support. And the relationships that we make are in my opinion, the things for me that have given me the most growth. From relationships can come conflict, which is growth. From relationships can come stretching for things which comes growth. The relationships that I've had in my life are the things that have propelled me to grow. Oddly enough, one of the most growing times was when I had no relationships, but the relationship I had with the word and with God. And so I've seen both the polars of having really good friends who were dedicated to the faith as well as being on your own. I think I could talk for a long time about the power of relationships in my life. Father Steve: I want to ask you about sports, because it seems like sports was a big part of your life. You still play soccer, right? Nicholas Kristof: I still play soccer, yes. Father Steve: So tell me about relationships. I think in my own life, growing up and high school, and just how important relationships for teammates were. How you are kind of in this battle together in this kind of seeking the same thing, depending on each other. I think of how important sports can be to teach us lessons about learning how to be graceful in victory and graceful in defeat, and learning how to seek a cause greater than ourselves. What has sports done kind of your life as an athlete, and how does that relate to your relationship with God? Nicholas Kristof: I am always and forever going to have sports in my life in some way. I think that the thought of just being on a team, getting together with a group of individuals for a greater goal, there's something so powerful, enticing and attractive about that to me. I just cannot get enough of being on a team and going towards a greater goal together. There's so much power in the journey to that greater goal as well, and making each other better and being held accountable by your teammates on the journey to that greater goal. You read countless times in the Bible where God gives us the commission to go and to gather and to gather in his name. Just the same way that I knew that I was parts of teams going for championships, I really feel like, especially my closest brothers and sisters in Christ that I'm able to open up the word with consistently that we're part of a team that is also going for a greater goal. When I was in college, I had a group of friends and we would get together on Friday nights. And we had a meal called veggie vibes where we would just cook a bunch of vegetable food, because we had a couple of vegetarians and we would read the Bible and just kind of enjoy each other's company and we'd get more and more people. And it started with four and grew to eight and 16. And by the time we were leaving Oakland, veggie vibes was like 50 people in multiple apartments at the student apartments. And it was just a really, really powerful testimony to the power of relationships and being on a team. Danielle: That's incredible. I was going to say something that I feel ... I'm not a professional athlete, but I do enjoy working out. I feel that there is a lot of crossover between physical work and spiritual work. You can learn a lot of lessons, one from the other. The one that I can really just think of off hand is a bad workout is better than no workout one. Sometimes you can go somewhere and just feel like you did a terrible job that day, but it's important to show up. And I think that that's the same in prayer. Sometimes you just got to show up. Is there anything like that that you're like, hey, this is something that I learned from being an athlete that I apply to my spiritual life? Nicholas Kristof: It's a brilliant question and it's such an important one to ask ourselves this question. I think that there's so much to learn in loss as well. For some reason, in my career, I've been really, really grateful to make it to a lot of championship games, but I actually have a ton of runner up trophies. I'm very grateful for my career and I've won some cool things, but I definitely have a majority runner up trophies than championships. The things that I learned in, in those losses have probably taught me more than I would have been taught in the wins. And so when I apply that to my faith, gosh, so many interesting emotions and feelings come up. But just to strive so hard for something but fall short could be an incredible analogy we could never earn the grace of God [inaudible 00:30:03] the gift to us. And just accepting that gift is enough. So I've learned a lot through the losses and there have been many, many losses. Father Steve: You've talked about the word of God a lot and just to connect it, to bring it to unleash the gospel where the Archbishop writes about, and we're talking about the emphasis of the word of God in this movement in Detroit is, the Lord wants all of his disciples to be steeped in his word to know him. So the relationship we have with God comes out of knowing the word that he's revealed. For any disciple, anyone who wants to follow Jesus, who wants to do what Jesus asks him or her to do, we have to know his word. When I read scripture, I think about it. It's like we were talking earlier about the accent that you heard in Australia. When I read the word of God, I think about it, it's like God's language, or, I guess even like that accent to know this is how God speaks so that when I see this or hear this in other places, whether it's in the world or with other people, or whether it kind of stirs up in my heart, I know what God's word sounds like. I'm used to hearing the sound of his voice because I've read his word. And so I'm more able not just in the moment that I'm praying or reading his word, but in the rest of my life, I'm more able to know what God is asking me to do. And I'm also more able to know what is not God's word. So those times of self doubt or condemnation, or whether it's with myself or other people, I can say, this is not how God speaks. I've kind of drifted away. Or what I'm hearing someone else say is not of God. And that's not something I want to kind of let into my life. So I find reading the scripture, and Danielle, I don't know your thoughts about this, but when I read scripture, it's about coming to know what God's voice sounds like. Danielle: A few weeks ago it was John 10 was the scripture passage, that's the one with Jesus, the good shepherd. I know my sheep. Father Steve: Sorry to go all- Danielle: Did the little girl teach you that? No, it's okay. That was really good. Great work. Like kind of [inaudible 00:32:39]. I'm like, wait, don't you speak in English? No. Good work. That concept of like knowing the voice of Jesus and knowing how to respond to it, super crucial. You know what Nicholas, we're coming to a close. And at the end of every podcast, we ask our guests to share a word or phrase with the listeners, kind of a closing thought for them. Is there anything that you'd like to share as we close? Nicholas Kristof: Yeah, there definitely is. Very quickly I'd like to add on to the accent analogy, because I thought it was incredibly powerful. Just with a small addition to it in that what's really crazy is if you go and live in another country for a couple of years, what do you come back with? Their accent? And just like, if you read the word consistently, just like I pick up an accent and I start to act the way that that culture acts I'll pick up the accent of Christ and the words that he puts on the page. So I thought it was a great spot on analogy. But, a word takeaway for me would be gratitude. I put gratitude in the name of my nonprofit and I try to put it at the forefront of everything that I do every day. I sign every email with the salutation, with gratitude. I think a grateful heart is a full heart, and finding the things to be grateful for in all conversations and all moments of alone time, in all environments is an incredibly powerful thing. And it's an intentional thing. Gratitude will not come as an involuntary reaction. You do have to try it. You do have to be intentional about it, but I promise anyone who doesn't feel like they have enough gratitude in their life, that if you can just try to think of the things you're grateful for, you're going to feel better. Father Steve: It's an attitude we have to develop. Nicholas, if people want to learn more about your nonprofit, where can they find more about it? Nicholas Kristof: They can head to fleeceandthankyou.org, and learn all about how we comfort hearts and create smiles. And they can order blanket kits and make blankets themselves. Father Steve: Yeah, thanks so much. It was great being with you and keep up the great work. Nicholas Kristof: Thank you guys very much. It was my pleasure. Father Steve: It was wonderful having Nicholas in the Open Door Policy studio, to hear about the great work that the Lord is doing in him and through him, his love for sports and the way he is a blessing to so many people's lives. Danielle: If you liked this episode, please share it with your friends, your neighbors, your relatives, your Trader Joe cashier. You can also leave us a review on iTunes. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Our handle is @opendoordetroit. Help us unleash the gospel. Open Door Policy was produced by Ron Pangborn and the creative team of the Archdiocese of Detroit. Father Steve: I got an idea. Danielle: I would love to hear it. Father Steve: Great. I'm Father Steve Pullis with Danielle Center. Danielle: And this has been another episode of Open Door Policy. Yeah.