"When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude"

  I sat down yesterday, after a bad day, and began writing in response to this quote... A lengthy page filled with my thoughts on how little we take with gratitude and how much we take for granted: the little differences between my life here and life at home, what the people live here without that we don't think twice about in our regular day-to-day lives, that people come in to our lives and sometimes we don't realize how interesting they are or how connected and attached you've gotten to them- until they're not there anymore. Though I could (and did) analyze all of this, I opted not to (yes- i deleted the entire thing) in hopes that this simply just triggers your thought process... makes you step back...

  Too often we get caught up in our routines and it's only a big change (whether a death, traveling, a change in job or where you're living, etc.) that makes us actually look around...