People who have faith in life are like swimmers who entrust themselves to a rushing river. They neither abandon themselves to its current nor try to resist it. Rather, they adjust their every movement to the watercourse, use it with purpose and skill, and enjoy the adventure.

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.

We have thousands of opportunities every day to be grateful: for having good weather, to have slept well last night, to be able to get up, to be healthy, to have enough to eat. ... There's opportunity upon opportunity to be grateful; that's what life is.

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.

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

If you learn to respond as if it’s the first day in your life and the very last day, then you will have spent this day very well.