person, he or she stands out as a singular exception. But we don’t have to losethe happiness or juiciness of youth. All we need to do is to tap into our sense
of gratitude, for when we do, we are like little children again, seeing the world
for the first time.
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Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul.
—Henry Ward Beecher
In Simple Pleasures of the Garden, Dawna Markova shares a story about a woman who
has kept her attitude of gratitude alive: “Several years ago, I was walking in March
along a gravel road that led to the ocean in Rhode Island. A very old and thin
woman came hobbling down a driveway toward me. I waved and continued
walking, but as I passed, she grabbed my arm, turned around and began to pull
me in the direction of her house. I instantly thought of the witch in Hansel and
Gretel, and tried to pull back, but that only made her clutch tighter around my
wrist. Besides, she didn’t cackle, so I relented.
“She didn’t say a word, in fact, until we approached her house: a shingle-
style cottage with green shutters and a front lawn erupting everywhere in purple
crocuses. She released me there, throwing her arms up in the air and shouting,
‘Look at this splendor! Isn’t it a miracle?!’”
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Mental sunshine will cause the flowers of peace, happiness, and prosperity to
grow upon the face of the Earth. Be a creator of mental sunshine.
—graffition a wall in Berkeley, California
Gratitude makes us feel good because it helps us widen our frame of vision.
Under depression or stress, we can develop tunnel vision, seeing only this prob-
lem, that difficulty.We can get overtaken by a heavy, dark feeling of despair. But
when we experience a sense of gratitude, we give ourselves a dose of mental
sunshine. Suddenly the world seems brighter, and we have more options.
And the greatest thing is that as we experience the mental sunshine of
gratitude, we begin to glow with sunshine ourselves. Suddenly not only is the
world brighter, but we are too. Soon we notice that our lives are full of people
who want to be around us because we exude peacefulness, happiness, and joy.
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You cannot be grateful and unhappy at the same time.
—a woman to Dr. Tom Costa
Tapping into the wellspring of gratitude is the greatest antidote to worry I
have ever experienced. How come? First, worry is always about the future,
if only the next hour or minute, whereas gratitude is in the here and now.
Cast over your list of worries. Aren’t they always about what might or might
not happen? You are worried about the reaction of your boss tomorrow to
your presentation. You’re worried about how you are going to afford to send
your son to college.You’re worried about the test results. In every case, you
project yourself into the future and imagine something bad happening.
Gratitude brings you back to the present moment, to all that is working per-
fectly right now.Tomorrow may bring difficulties, but for right now, things
are pretty good.
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It is not hard to live through a day if you can live through a moment. What
creates despair is the imagination, which pretends there is a future and insists
on predicting millions of moments, thousands of days, and so drains you that
you cannot live the moment at hand.
—Andre Dubus
Gratefulness eliminates worry because it reminds us of the abundance of
our universe. It helps us remember that we’ve had many blessings in our
lives. Yes, something bad might happen, but given all that you have received
so far, chances are you will continue to be supported on your journey through
life, even in ways you would never have guessed or chosen for yourself.
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Sometimes I go about with pity for myself and all the while Great Winds are
carrying me across the sky.
—Ojibway saying
When we are grateful, we exude happiness and that makes us magnets that draw
other people toward us. They want to be around that exuberant energy. Gratitude
not only draws people to us, but it helps us keep those who are in our sphere.
When we see the glass as half-full, rather than half-empty, we notice what is
there, rather than dwelling on what is not. When we notice what’s there, we get
out of our self-absorption and realize that there are people around us, many of
whom have done wonderful things for us. And when we express our gratitude for
their presence in our lives, it’s more likely that those people will want to continue
to be around us.
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A point worth pondering: Upon completing the Universe, the Great Creator
pronounced it “very good.” Not “perfect.”
—Sarah Ban Breathnach
When I was young, I wanted to be a saint. Not just plain old good, but a bona
fide canonized saint. I figured that anything worth doing was worth doing per-
