"To be grateful for the good things that happen in our lives is easy, but to be grateful for all of our lives-the good as well as the bad, the moments of joy as well as the moments of sorrow, the successes as well as the failures, the rewards as well as the rejections-that requires hard spiritual work. Still, we are only truly grateful people when we can say thank you to all that has brought us to the present moment. As long as we keep dividing our lives between events and people we would like to remember and those we would rather forget, we cannot claim the fullness of our beings as a gift of God to be grateful for. Let's not be afraid to look at everything that has brought us to where we are now and trust that we will soon see in it the guiding hand of a loving God." (Henri Nouwen) Many times we do not see how the bad moments are also times of gratitude to God. For even thought he did not cause them, he permitted them to draw us closer to him. By being grateful to God in all things, we learn the deeper meaning of the real spiritual journey. A grateful heart is pleasing to God for it acknowledges that God is the beginning of all things and that he has a plan for our good and not our woe. Thank you, God!