By Gail Summerskill

After 26 hours of driving, pounds of food and many laughs, my family and I returned gratefully from visiting family in upstate New York for Thanksgiving.

When we went around the Thanksgiving table and stated what filled us with gratitude, my mother said, “I’m just happy to be here.”

Because she was diagnosed with cancer in June, this pronouncement was indeed profound. We were all happy that she and everyone else around the table were there.

Gratitude at its starkest starts with “being.” That we are human is unconsciously attached to our being and is the problem with gratitude. We should be glad to be alive and part of the human race, but often we are not.

…read the rest of the story here…