What does gratitude mean to me?

It is the joining of body and soul.

It means accepting every gift the world has given us, and she has given us everything.

It means seeing a life past money, the path chosen for us by others.

Every breath we take is a gift, every beat of the heart, every step we take.

Every moment of our existence is a gift of grace. Gratitude takes nothing for granted, complains about

nothing, never ignores or diminishes us, encourages and supports us.

Gratitude is awakening every moment of every day to

the goodness and richness and life and death of the world, of the very idea of God.

Gratitude is the ability to see, it comes from experience,

it is our spirit, nourished from within.

it is never second-hand, never the judgement of others.

Gratitude is the silence, the sacred space that surrounds us,

the beauty that is everywhere, the songs of Mother Earth,

the wisdom of the animals.

This is what makes all of the difference, we are grateful for our lives, or we are not,

and that is the fateful choice

we make about how we shall live and what we will recognize and see.