Suppose you did the work you love, didn't have any debt could afford, a comfortable vacation and were rich enough to move
into a bigger house. Could you be happy under those circumstances? You might say yes, but most
people would probably still feel disatistfied in a short time. That is the nature of endless desire. Why are people continously unhappy with their earthly lot? First, we are always comparing ourselves with others. We are dying to know how much money our neighbors, friends and relatives have, where thay live, what they drive, what they wear, and how they spend their vacation. It is always easy for us to fantasize about how easier life would be, if we only had a little more money. Second, the mass media feed us falsely glamorous notions about the world, how the beautiful people lives of such luxury and ease and we want the same. So we never satisfied with what we have, no matter how comfortable we may actually be; we are all like mosquito flying into the flames. We are too strongly hooked to the illusion of spiraling desire to restrain ourselves easily. We need to remove our lust for earthly goods step by step. Doing so requires time and practice like learning how to ride a bicycle. Unfortunatley, we cant make much progress because, during the ride, instead of concentrating on keeping our balance we are too likely to be wishing we had a ten speed. We have to think that :
Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.
It turns what we have into enough, and more.
It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. It turns problems into gifts, failures into successes, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into
important events. It can turn existence into a real life, and disconnected situations into important and beneficial lessons. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.