To live with gratitude is to be humble.  To me, it is also to be in awe and wonder.  Humble because of a deep appreciation for life.  Especially life in the U.S. where everything we desire is at our fingertips.  This gratitude is an appreciation for the number of souls that are a part of every luxury we are able to experience.  Water is a luxury.  We turn on a faucet and safe, drinkable water flows.  It is crystal clear and free from disease.  The number of people that are or have been involved in making that crystal clear, disease-free glass of water is humbling.  The designer of the filtration and purification system that takes the water from non-drinkable to drinkable.  The hundreds of people that built the equipment.  The construction workers that built the facility.  The power that allows it to function is generated at a power plant.  The power plant is a massive undertaking with thousands of contributors.  I...

My father battled depression for many years.  This drug, that drug, this therapy, and that therapy.  He struggled as his enthusiasm toward life became non-existent.  He was excited about nothing.  The medication seemed to flat line his emotions.  We would be planning a fishing trip and he would be apathetic.  Fishing is a for him, but not while medicated.  Eventually, he was off the meds but still having ups and downs.  Then something remarkable happened.  His hobby of making pen holders out of mesquite wood blossomed into a service.  He began to give pen holders that he had made to service men and women.  First, it was one here and one there.  Over time, it has grown to hundreds each month.  He goes to the VA each week to express his gratitude to our veterans and present them with a pen holder.  He began to serve others.  His transition from depression to gratitude has resulted in relief from the depression...