"Happiness Revealed Through Gratitude".
"You think that this is just another day in you life? It's not just another day. It's the one day that is given to you today. It's given to you. It's a gift. It's the only gift that you have now, and the only appropriate response is gratefulness. If you do nothing else but to cultivate that response to the great gift that this unique day is, if you learn to respond as if it were the first day of your life, and the very last day, then you will have spent this day very well.
Begin by opening your eyes and be surprised that you have eyes that you can open. That incredible array of colours that is constantly offered to us for pure enjoyment. Look at the sky. We so rarely look at the sky. We so rarely note how different it is from moment to moment with clouds coming and going. We just think of the weather. And even of the weather, we don't think of all the many nuances of the weather. We just think of good weather and bad weather. This day, right now, has unique weather, maybe a kind that will never exactly in that form come again. The formation of cloud in the sky will never be the same that is right now. Open your eyes. Look at that. Look at the faces of people that you meet. Each one has an incredible story behind their face, a story that you could never fully fathom. Not only their own story but the story of their ancestors. And I will go back so far. And in this present moment, on this day, all the people you meet, all that life from generations and so many places all over the world flows together and meets you here like a life-giving water, if you only open your heart and drink.
Open your heart for the incredible gifts that civilisation gives to us. You flip a switch and there is electric light. You turn a faucet, and there is warm water and cold water and drinkable water. It's a gift that millions and millions in the world will never experience. So these are just a few of an enormous number of gifts to which you can open your heart. And so I wish you that you would open your heart to all these blessings and let them flow through you, that everyone you meet on this day will be blessed by you. Just by your eyes, your smile, by your touch. Just by your presence. Let the gratefulness overflow into blessing all around you. Then it will really be a good day." - David Staindl-Rast
Extracted from a video talk by Louie Schwartzberg | Founder, Blacklight Films. Click here if you wish to watch it.