What if we all woke up every morning, looked out at the rising sun and expressed gratitude for another day of life? How many days would it take until we began to feel gratitude. How would that change us? What would that mean to our families, neighbors and community?
      What if we stopped talking about what’s wrong and started acknowledging what’s right in the world, in our home, in our islands? What if we chose to live in abundance thinking instead of scarcity?
     Imagine.
      I know a man who was homeless for more than a year. He recently worked himself, by himself, out of living on the streets and in shelters, into a room and a good job.
      While he was waiting for his first paycheck, someone bought him a hat. He was able to walk nearly 100 blocks to his new job in warmth because of the hat.
      He was ebullient in his expression of gratitude for a five-dollar hat.
      We live in warmth all the time. Few of us have been homeless. Most of us have more than “enough” of everything.
      Thirty years ago I was privileged to be present when John Blofeld, a British writer on Asian thought and religion, especially Taoism and Chinese Buddhism, spoke at a Buddhist center in Rochester, N.Y.
       “I can teach you all how to be rich by tomorrow morning,” he began. We waited. “What does it mean to be rich,” Blofeld asked. “It means you have what you want.” How to be rich?  “Want what you have.”
      Imagine how our lives and the lives of those around us would change – immediately – if we expressed some gratitude and thankfulness for what we have? Eventually, it could become a true feeling, living inside of us. Imagine how liberating that would be – how blissful.
      We magnify what we focus on.
      As we begin the season of gratitude and peace, let’s try focusing on all the bounty in our lives. A friend, a healthy meal, the salt air, the light and warmth of the rising sun or a warm hat.