Quotes About Gratitude

Observe the things your mind is telling you, without immediately obeying its commands or spending time arguing with it. ?Recognize when your mind is viewing the world as a darker, scarier place than it really is. ?Stop confusing the memories attached to your household items with the items themselves. ?Stop envisioning catastrophe in your future. ?Celebrate your successes rather than focusing on your shortcomings.

A gift should be something freely given that enhances your life and reminds you lovingly of the giver. If it's not, you simply should not give it a place in your home.

One goal of the Let It Go way of downsizing is for you to surround yourself with only a manageable number of possessions that you cherish and treasure, which trigger good emotional responses, like joy, relaxation, focus, and motivation.

To my daughter, without whose help this book would have been completed a long time back.

THE FIVE EXCELLENT PRACTICES OF PILGRIMAGES Inspired by a fifth-century conversation between Zi Zhang and Confucius about the practices of wise rulers in The Analects, here are five excellent practices for travelers on sacred journeys: Practice the arts of attention and listening. Practice renewing yourself every day. Practice meandering toward the center of every place. Practice the ritual of reading sacred texts. Practice gratitude and praise-singing.

I appreciate life so much after I see people die. It is always just such a reminder that every moment -- this is all we have. This is it. I don't know if there is anything before or after, but this is what we do know. This is it. There are no guarantees for anything else. So we have to always, always appreciate.

If you can go home to someone who loves you, if your children are proud of you, if you can keep your integrity, you've hit the jackpot. You don't need the state to call your number. It's already been called.

The leaves of our blessed lives fall to the ground and if we're wise like my grandfather, we gather them in a pile and keep them safe lest the winds of forgetfulness blow them away.

Sometimes what we think we need isn't what we need at all, and what gets thrown in for good measure is that which fills our hearts.

Sometimes what we think we need isn't what we need at all, and what gets thrown in for good measure is that which fills our hearts.

Mercer held out a closed hand, palm up. 'Before I forget it, I have something of yours here.' He opened his fingers. On his hand rested the mutilated spider, but with its snipped-off legs restored. 'Thanks.' Isidore accepted the spider.

The steamy, noisy kitchen was the safest place in the world, it seemed to him. Safety had never been anything to think about before; it was something you took for granted, like his mother's endless, effortless, generous food, and the fact that there would always be hot plates ready to serve it on.

Yes, the secret commonwealth…You don't hear much talk about that these days. When I was young, there wasn't a single bush, not a single flower nor a stone, that didn't have its own proper spirit. You had to have a mind to your manners around them, to ask for pardon, or for permission, or give thanks….Just to acknowledge that they were there, them spirits, and they had their proper rights to recognition and courtesy.

His mother had died at eighty, his father at ninety. Aloud he said to them, I'm seventy-one. Your boy is seventy-one. Good. You lived, his mother replied, and his father said, Look back and atone for what you can atone for, and make the best of what you have left.

I'm the only one who gives her a whole can of tuna for lunch, and I'm not talking dreck, either. I'm talking Chicken of the Sea, Alex.

Do not think of tomorrow. Enjoy the now, for it is all any of us ever have.

You were listening to the music as deeply as anyone I've ever seen. I was so happy for you that day-because you'd discovered something all your own. And I was so glad it was something I could give to you.

When I think about John William now, I think about someone who followed through, and then I'm glad not to have followed through, to still be breathing, to still be here with people, to still be walking in the mountains, and to still be uncertain--even with all this cash on hand--in a way I seem to have no choice about. I'm a hypocrite, of course, and I live with that, but I live.

But no mention is made of the fact that it was God they were thanking. . . .

I felt a rush of trust--felt that life might be not just tolerable but beautiful, if I could only remember to find the bare Present.

According to the Bible, the antidote to materialism is generosity.

It's fairly simple. When can we pray? All the time. When should we praise God? Whenever we pray.

God's past faithfulness and compassion toward us is a heritage upon which we build our faith in the future.

Should it be ours to drain the cup of grieving, even to the dregs of pain, at thy command, we will not falter, thankfully receiving all that is given by thy loving hand. While all the powers of Good aid and attend us, boldly we'll face the future, be what it may. At even, and at morn, God will befriend us, and oh, most surely on each new year's day!6