Practicing gratefulness in
all circumstances

Welcome! Perhaps you have read one of those “good news/bad news” tales: A peasant receives a sorely needed horse from a friend: good news! But the horse soon becomes seriously ill: bad news. A kindly aunt offers to pay for the poor animal’s medicine: good news. But as the peasant travels to the apothecary, robbers attack him. So the story goes, on and on through many changes of fortune. The concluding message – “Good news, bad news: Who knows?” – applies readily to gratefulness. We naturally give thanks for things we perceive to be beneficial, whereas we tend to balk at misfortune. But if we could see the grand interweaving of the events of our lives, we might be surprised. Opportunities for gratitude lie imbedded in “bad” news just as often as in “good”.