Sorry to hear about your friend. I can see were that would have made the "three blessings" activity hard to do. I really liked what you said about using the different perspectives when thinking about your blessings. That idea in and of itself seems like it would also be great in helping to maintain a global perspective. Sometimes I notice myself becoming to focused on things that effect me directly and its almost like I forget there's a whole other world out there with people that are facing issues that are much bigger then anything I have to deal with.