I came across this quote while reading Ruthless Trust earlier this year. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve returned to Brennan Manning’s chapter on gratitude in that book. Gratitude is frequently seen as something we do (perhaps as we sit at a table loaded with garlic mashed potatoes and turkey). Yet Manning—and Steindl-Rast in the quote above—describe it as an attitude towards the world, our daily circumstances, and God. An attitude that’s not merely reactive—or limited to a national holiday.