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

"The root of joy is gratefulness."

Any place is sacred ground, for it can become a place of encounter with the divine Presence.

Look closely and you will find that people are happy because they are grateful. The opposite of gratefulness is just taking everything for granted.

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.

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.

Wherever we may come alive, that is the area in which we are spiritual.