Gratitude keeps us clear that not only do our gifts and our challenges come from God, but that our gifts and challenges are essentially one and the same…

Without gratitude, our enjoyment of the world shrinks into cramped self-indulgence and the unscratchable itch of never having enough. And without gratitude, our efforts to improve the world degenerate into whining self-pity, anger, and frustration over the burden of our supposed moral superiority that others refuse to acknowledge.

from The Haunt of Grace