Gratitude - everything is a miracle

If we stop for a moment and think about it (a strange thing to do, I know) everything around us is a gift. Our life is a gift, our body is a gift, the air we breathe is a very welcome gift from the universe…

In his book ‘Hara – the Vital Centre of Man’ Karlfried Graf Durkheim states:

Man, as a living being, is not rooted in himself. Rather he is nourished, sustained and held in order by Nature whose laws operate without his knowledge and assistance.

To paraphrase another source that escapes me*, we walk without knowing what it is that moves us; we stop without knowing what it is that stops us. We assimilate what we eat without knowing how we assimilate it. How can we presume to appropriate anything to ourselves?
It is folly and pride not to be awed by the miracle of life. But we so easily get caught up in the petty game of striving to get what we want that we forget to appreciate and enjoy what we do have. The game is only a game, and it is not even our own playing board.
But we can step back from the game and change our perspective and our attitude. Gratitude changes the rules of the game immediately. It becomes a delight to play instead of a struggle. And, best of all, we never seem to lose…

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. Brother David Steindl-Rast

If a fellow isn't thankful for what he's got, he isn't likely to be thankful for what he's going to get. Frank A. Clark

You cannot bring anything new into your life until you are grateful for what you have now. Dr. Michael Beckwith

Who does not thank for little will not thank for much. Estonian Proverb

If you want to turn your life around, try thankfulness. It will change your life mightily. Gerald Good

The unthankful heart... discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings! Henry Ward Beecher

The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings. Eric Hoffer

When a person doesn't have gratitude, something is missing in his or her humanity. A person can almost be defined by his or her attitude toward gratitude. Elie Wiesel

Both abundance and lack exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities. It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend... when we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that's present - love, health, family, friends, work, the joys of nature and personal pursuits that bring us pleasure - the wasteland of illusion falls away and we experience Heaven on earth. Sarah Ban Breathnac

Feeling grateful or appreciative of someone or something in your life actually attracts more of the things that you appreciate and value in your life. Christiane Northrup

You simply will not be the same person two months from now after consciously giving thanks each day for the abundance that exists in your life. And you will have set in motion an ancient spiritual law: the more you have and are grateful for, the more will be given you. Sarah Ban Breathnach

There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. Albert Einstein

* 21 January 2009, I have found the reference: Chuang Tzu.
'Your destiny, your activity form an intergral part of the transformation of beings under the action of heaven and earth... You advance in life without knowing what pushes you, you stop without knowing what it is that stops you, you eat without knowing how you assimilate, the powerful but unknowable action of heaven and earth moving you in everything; and you claim to appropriate something to yourself?'