One single gift acknowledged in gratefulness has the power to dissolve the ties of our alienation.

Day and night gifts keep pelting down on us. If we were aware of this, gratefulness would overwhelm us. But we go through life in a daze. A power failure makes us aware of what a gift electricity is; a sprained ankle lets us appreciate walking as a gift, a sleepless night, sleep. How much we are missing in life by noticing gifts only when we are suddenly deprived of them.

Through people that I did know or through things that I did touch, I am connected with everything that ever was and everything that ever will be. Everything hangs together with everything.

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.

At any moment the fully present mind can shatter time and burst into Now.

Grateful living makes life meaningful and full of joy.

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.