By Oprah Winfrey

I live in the space of thankfulness – and I have been rewarded a million
times over for it.

I started out giving thanks for small things, and the more thankful I
became, the more my bounty increased. That’s because what you focus on
expands, and when you focus on the goodness in your life, you create
more of it.
Opportunities, relationships, even money flowed my way when I learned to
be grateful no matter what happened in my life.

“Say thank you!” Those words from my friend and mentor Maya Angelou
turned my life around. One day about ten years ago, I was sitting in my
bathroom with the door closed and the toilet lid down, booing and
ahooing on the phone so uncontrollably that I was incoherent.

“Stop it! Stop it right now and say thank you!” Maya chided. “But – you
don’t understand,” I sobbed.

To this day, I can’t remember what it was that had me so far gone, which
only proves the point Maya was trying to make. “I do understand,” she
told me. “I want to hear you say it now. Out loud.

‘Thank you.’” Tentatively, I repeated it:

“Thank you – but what am I saying thank you for?”

“You’re saying thank you,” Maya said, “because your faith is so strong
that you don’t doubt that whatever the problem, you’ll get through it.
You’re saying thank you because you know that even in the eye of the
storm, God has put a rainbow in the clouds. You’re saying thank you
because you know there’s no problem created that can compare to the
Creator of all things. Say thank you!”

So I did – and still do. Only now I do it every day. I kept a gratitude
journal, as Sarah Ban Breathnach suggests in Simple Abundance, listing
at least five things that I’m grateful for. My list includes small
pleasures:
the feel of Kentucky bluegrass under my feet (like damp silk); a walk in
the woods with all nine of my dogs and my cocker spaniel Sophie trying
to keep up; cooking fried green tomatoes with Stedman and eating them
while they’re hot; reading a good book and knowing another awaits.

My thank-you list also includes things too important to take for
granted: an “okay” mammogram, friends who love me, 15 years at the same
job (and loving it more than the first day I started), a chance to share
my vision for a better life, staying centered, having financial
security.

I won’t kid you, having money for all the things I want is a blessing.
But as I look back over my journals, which I’ve kept since I was 15
years old,
99 per cent of what brought me real joy had nothing to do with money .
(It had a lot to do with food, however.)