One can learn to focus on "opportunity" as the gift within every given moment. This attitude towards life always improves the situation. Even in times of sickness, someone who habitually practices grateful living will look for the opportunity that a given moment offers and use it creatively.

In moments of surprise we catch at least a glimpse of the joy to which gratefulness opens the door.

Gratitude is here presented as more than a feeling, a virtue, or an experience; gratitude emerges as an attitude we can freely choose in order to create a better life for ourselves and for others. The Nigerian Hausa put it this way: Give thanks for a little and you will find a lot.

The root of joy is gratefulness...It is not joy that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us joyful.

...our happiness hinges not on good luck; it hinges on peace of heart.

Blessing is the lifeblood throbbing through the universe.

As we learn to give thanks for all of life and death, for all of this given world of ours, we find a deep joy. It is the joy of trust, the joy of faith in the faithfulness at the heart of all things. It is the joy of gratefulness in touch with the fullness of life.