"Under affliction in the very depths, stop and contemplate what you have to be grateful for."
— Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian Science

"When bedridden or otherwise hampered by illness or injury, we may experience an identity crisis. When we are unable to carry on with our usual activities, it is not uncommon to feel a loss of purpose. We must face issues like an identity crisis or a sense of purposelessness realistically, because successfully traversing the healing journey requires that we proceed with the lightness of a bright heart. Loss, real or imagined, can weigh heavily upon us. Our daily activities — work, family, socializing, and the like — are important to us. They take up most of our waking hours. Yet there are times when we cannot be physically active. If we find that we cannot do, we must learn how to be.

"Daily life presents us with ample opportunities to practice gratitude, most of which we tend to view as annoyances: waiting in line in the supermarket, traffic jams, airport delays, and so forth. From an idealistic point of view we can posture and say that we should not have to practice gratitude. We should simply be grateful. On a spiritually lofty level that may be true, but in a real-world, earthly existence it may not always be so. The ubiquitous nature of dukkha requires of us a conscious approach to gratitude if we are to avoid the bleakness of loneliness and despair.

"People are not grateful because
they are happy,
they are happy because they are grateful."
— Br. David Steindl-Rast

"Gratitude is one of the fastest-acting remedies available to us. One moment, one quick reminder to ourselves of all that we have to be grateful for will lift our spirits. Meditation, on the other hand, while of extraordinary value, takes time to develop, as does physical fitness. Gratitude is instantaneous. When we look deeply, no matter what has befallen us, there is always something for which to be grateful. My friend, the great Native American sculptor Michael Naranjo, was blinded and lost the use of most of his right hand in the Vietnam War. He told me that although there were times when he was frightened, he always knew that he would be all right because he was alive and his mind was clear. For that, he was grateful.

"When we hear about a friend who has been diagnosed with cancer, or another who has been injured in an accident, or a neighbor whose husband has died, we might think, How can I complain about my fractured ankle? I should be grateful. But suffering and distress are not comparative matters. There is no prize for the person who suffers the most. We can have great compassion for those who are under duress, but that embraces all beings, including ourselves. No one goes through life without experiencing dukkha. Gratitude is a practice that can dramatically change the way we deal with misfortune. Illness, old age, accidents, and abusiveness can all push gratefulness out of our hearts.

"Our practice is to be present to all that is, not just fragments of the whole. We are not just elderly, or ill, or one who has been injured. There is much more to all of us, and in the whole being there is much for which each of us can be grateful. As author Agatha Christie said, 'I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable ... but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.' "