For many across the United States the winter of 2011 has been filled with surprises.\u00a0 Falling temperatures, snow, and ice have pummeled nearly every part of the country.\u00a0 Here in Dallas the weather plunged from highs in the seventies to lows in the teens with ice and then snow.<\/p>\n
We complained about the uncharacteristically warm temperatures.\u00a0 Then after days on end of ice and snow, others groused, \u201cIt\u2019s beautiful, but enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
When I was tempted to join the chorus, I thought, \u201cTake your gift and say thanks.\u201d<\/p>\n
We complain far too much.\u00a0 There is nothing intrinsically wrong with desires and longing, ambition or progress.\u00a0 But some elements of life just are what they are and almost nothing that needs to be changed yields to change over night.<\/p>\n
The secret of life deeply and joyfully lived is just one that not only lives in the moment (as I so often hear people say).\u00a0 The secret of life lived joyfully is life lived in the present with gratitude.<\/em><\/p>\n Take your gift and say thanks.<\/p>\n You will live with greater joy. \u00a0You will notice things for which to give thanks. \u00a0And change will not leave you struggling in quite the same way.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For many across the United States the winter of 2011 has been filled with surprises.\u00a0 Falling temperatures, snow, and ice have pummeled nearly every part of the country.\u00a0 Here in Dallas the weather plunged from highs in the seventies to lows in the teens with ice and then snow. We complained about the uncharacteristically warm […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":240,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spiritual-perspectives"],"yoast_head":"\n