As I watched the storms sweeping through the nation, I said a little prayer for those poor folks in “tornedo alley.”

It’s hard to imagine how it would feel to see your home in a pile of rubble, then hear there’s yet another wave of storms heading your way.  Makes me grateful to be able to sit this one out.

Over and over I watch people cope and always they express gratitude to be alive.  No matter how bad things get, there’s always something to celebrate. 

I just learned that we lost a classmate today.  James Cary Jeter died way too young, and I can’t help but wonder what he would be doing if he had another day.  None of have anything but the moment we’re in.

Being happy is developing a grateful attitude – knowing that every night that we crawl into bed, we can be grateful for another day.  Every time we hear the voice of our children on the telephone, we have something to be happy about. 

Some people are addicted to suffering.  The inability to recognize and appreciate all the goodness in life is a habit we can easily acquire as we grow older and deal with disappointment and failure. 

I have lived most of my life waiting for something or someone to make me happy, until one day I discovered that we all  the ability to generate good thoughts and happy feelings without any outside stimuli.

It’s kind of like avoiding the gym. If we don’t exercise, our bodies fall apart.  Happiness is a muscle we must use every day, or it will wither away and we will make life miserable for ourselves and those around us.