Say thank you, until you mean it.

Thank God, life, and the universe for everyone and everything sent your way.

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. It turns problems into gifts, failures into successes, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. It can turn an existence into a real life, and disconnected situations into important and beneficial lessons. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.

Gratitude makes things right.

Gratitude turns negative energy into positive energy. There is no situation or circumstance so small or large that it is not susceptible to gratitude’s power. We can start with who we are and what we have today, apply gratitude, then let it work its magic.

Say thank you, until you mean it. If you say it long enough, you will believe it.

Today, I will shine the transforming light of gratitude on all the circumstances of my life.

—-  Melody Beattie
The Language of Letting Go: Meditations for Codependents (1990)

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Melody Beattie is one of America’s most beloved self-help authors and a well-known name in addiction and recovery circles. Her books provide wisdom and guidance that comes from firsthand experience of trauma and recovery. Beattie was able to digest and explain the work of psychiatrist Timmen L. Cermak, author of Diagnosing and Treating Co-Dependence.  She popularized the concept in 1986 with Codependent No More, which sold eight million copies. Her 24-year writing career has produced fifteen books published in twenty languages and hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles. She and her books continue to be featured regularly in national and international publications.