It was when the sun gently slipped off the backside of the horizon and slowly drew the light of the day in it’s train that everything went quiet. And before the assorted choruses of crickets and spring peepers rose to greet the night, nature nodded at a day well done. And regardless of whether my day had come with rain or sunshine, I find few things as healing as lifting my soul above my circumstances and bringing the day to a close by nodding at a day well done.

Having lived with nothing is the gift that allows me to appreciate the privilege of having everything.

To be thankful for one thing is infinitely more powerful than to be bitter about a hundred others.

Thanksgiving is an attitude that must be rooted in the ‘gift of life’ if we ever hope to be thankful for the ‘gifts’ of life.

I only own something because someone somewhere sacrificed in order to create the situation where I have the opportunity to own it. And therefore, the more I own the more I owe.

The greatest accomplishment of all is to recognize that we were freely handed two extraordinary gifts that we had no part in creating. The first is a talent to cultivate, and the second is the opportunity to cultivate it.

It starts with one thing. And when I find that ‘one thing’ that I can be thankful for, others immediately rush to the forefront of my mind. And in but a few moments I am so inundated by all that I have to be thankful for that any sense that my life is impoverished itself becomes impoverished.

Greed are the handcuffs and gratitude is the key. Sadly, sometimes we prefer wearing the cuffs to finding the keys.

Being thankful for something instantly grants that thing a depth it would not have had were I not thankful for it. And while I can certainly live without having had that kind of depth, in turn I will have died without ever having had any kind of life.