The church we were attending at time was planning a huge Christmas play. They were pulling out all stops and were abuzz with excitement. Mary, pastor's wife/casting director was in hot pursuit of lead role: A young girl with many, many lines. In fact character appeared in every scene and spoke in all but one.

It was my understanding that she wanted a teenager, but girls weren't exactly lining up in front of her. A. Practices would take place each Friday and Saturday night for a month. B. Forget a line + suffer humiliation = life's over.

Then one Sunday evening, Mary headed toward me smiling like a cat with salmon on its breath. My first thought was, "Has she gotten that desperate?" I started filing through my mental files for folder marked EXCUSES, but realized soon enough I didn't need excuses because she didn't need a 28 year old teenager.

She: "Sweet Emily has saved day!" Me: "My sweet Emily?" She: "Of course. She wants role. She's so excited. I showed her script, and how many pages there are to memorize. She said she could do it."

Me: "Then she'll do it."

My freckle faced, beautiful little girl who had never done anything remotely like this had just signed on for something realistically over her head. Realistically. But 8 year olds don't think realistically. They'd never stoop to that.

Be Grateful

Life is better when you feel blessed, when you can look around and say "Thank you, God." Religious or not, when you see life as a wonderful gift, your experience is a richer one than any amount of money can provide. Imagine going through life like you're a child, and every morning is Christmas.

It's tempting to think gatitude comes from having what you want. You see yourself giving thanks if you had money, a loving family, and maybe a house on beach. Still, you know there are ungrateful, unhappy people with these things, and poor people full of gratitude for what little they have. Where does this feeling come from?

Creating Gratitude