Often, it can seem as if others take for granted the kind things we do—but every now and then there is an exception to the rule. A man, looking like a panhandler, entered a New York subway car and shouted, “Thank you, ladies and gentlemen! I am not here today to ask you for money. I am here to thank you for what you have already been kind enough to give me over the past few months. Your money has allowed me to get these special glasses that I am now wearing. I am still legally blind, but now I can read. This is what has allowed me to get a job. A job! So I thank you! I thank all of you!”

How often do we take the time to say thanks for the kindnesses we receive? Author Melody Beattie once wrote, “Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order and confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home and a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”