Everything is a gift. The degree to which we are awake to this truth is a measure of our gratefullness, and gratefullness is a measure of our aliveness.

What brings fulfillment is gratefulness, the simple response of our heart to this life in all its fullness.

Gratefulness is that fullness of life for which we are all thirsting.

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.

Love is saying yes to belonging.

Only gratefulness, in the form of limitless openness for surprise, lays hold of the fullness of life in hope.

Gratefulness is the key to a happy life that we hold in our hands, because if we are not grateful, then no matter how much we have we will not be happy -- because we will always want to have something else or something more.