Nikki Cooper

I wrote Chocolate Covered Gratitude with the intention of raising the frequency and wisdom within our communities all over the world by teaching children at an early age the power of gratitude. This is particularly important for those children who belong to communities whose circumstances may not allow life’s daily gifts to present themselves in plain sight. Daily appreciation for clean running water, the unique scar on ones arm or a warm hug from grandma can effect change in the home and all across the world.

I grew up in two opposing realms of San Francisco. My father grew up in San Francisco public housing in the 40’s and 50’s. My mother grew up in a small lumber town in Northern California. Together, they opened three restaurants and a corner store beginning in the late sixties in three predominantly African American neighborhoods in San Francisco. In one realm, I grew up understanding the importance of empowering your surrounding community in order to advance as a collective. I saw people who could not find employment, meandering through life with no direction, find a sense of purpose working with my family, become integral contributors to the larger goal of community advancement.

The second realm was San Francisco’s privileged private school system, which I attended from elementary through high school. Within these schools, although I did not realize it at the time, I witnessed uninhibited financial and emotional privilege that afforded my classmates opportunities rarely seen in the first realm. For the most part, their foundation was solidly built upon the unwavering belief that they were loved, intelligent and entitled to all the abundance life offered them. To wake up everyday and have this embedded in your spirit is a privilege that we as human beings all deserve, but are not always afforded.

After experimenting in Corporate America for a few years I decided to work in San Francisco’s Public School District in some of the most underprivileged schools in San Francisco. The spark of wanting to affect change was ignited but my momentum was impeded by the bureaucratic red tape of the school system. That’s when I decided to take over my parents’ first restaurant and be a constant, present force within my community overflowing with broken love mended by golden resiliency. Its this San Francisco that allowed me to truly understand how the emotional discrepancies between the two realms deeply impact our children and contribute to a divisive division within humanity. Its this San Francisco where I discovered that it’s part of my journey’s purpose to help eliminate this incongruity and help heal our children from the inside out so they know without a shadow of a doubt that they are deserving of all the joy, love and peace this life has to offer.