Several years ago, a Jewish Rabbi visited the retirement community where I work and shared about the centrality of gratitude in Judaism. He explained the daily practice of giving thanks even in the midst of difficulty. Gratitude, he reminded us, is about a perspective of the mind and heart.

The Yiddish folktale, It Could Always Be Worse by Margot Zemach, is a wonderful reminder of this truth. In the story, a farmer and his wife and six children were overwhelmed with life together in their tiny one-room hut and sought the advice of the local Rabbi. The Rabbi advised them to bring their chickens into the house to live with them. The farmer followed the Rabbi’s advice, and when he found things unbearable, he sought the Rabbi’s counsel again! This time, the farmer was encouraged to bring his goats into the house. Once again the farmer was overwhelmed, but persevered until he couldn’t bear it. This time the Rabbi advised him to bring his cow into the house. By now, life in the tiny hut was pandemonium. The chickens, the goats, the cows, the children, the wife, the farmer! Finally, the Rabbi instructed the farmer to return all of the animals to the farmyard. Relieved with this instruction, the farmer did as was advised, and that night the family slept soundly. The next day, the farmer returned to the Rabbi one last time. “Holy Rabbi,” he cried, “you have made life sweet for me. With just my family in the hut, it’s so quiet, so roomy, so peaceful…What a pleasure!”

It really is about perspective, about how we want to approach life. I love how G.K. Chesterton captures this same sentiment: “You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing, and grace before I dip the pen in the ink.”

Another approach is to simply save the pessimism for tomorrow, as Maya Angelou suggests, “Stormy or sunny days, glorious or lonely nights, I maintain an attitude of gratitude. If I insist on being pessimistic, there is always tomorrow. Today I am blessed.”

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Perhaps, as Henry Ward Beecher, a grateful posture is all that is required, “The unthankful heart… discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings!”

Gratitude has a power of its own. May a thankful heart guide you in the days and nights before you.