Gratitude tune up.

So often I find myself aggravated and dissatisfied with whats going on in my life.  While this is by no means an unusual state for billions of humans around the word. I have found that this discontentment  starts with a decision that I make somewhere on the borderlines of conscious and subconscious awareness. How often do I Pray, hope and wish for a miracle to bring me the one thing  I think I need to be happy, only too soon, after receiving it, I have disregard this blessing as something that I deserve, and then its on to my next self proclaimed need. Wait a second! what happened to the "If I only had (you fill in the blank) I could relax. I received it, and now its stashed somewhere on the,"Ive got that", shelf, collecting dust.  Stop! Time to get out the Swiffer, I want to see whats on that shelf. OK, right up front there's my wife, my home, my car, and my job. Hold on! you say, I don't have any or all of those things, well neither did I until recently, but there they are, already dusty in my minds eye of how good or bad my life is. If I look a little further back there's my health, my ability to see, walk, talk, think. Hey! there's my family, I had forgotten about them,  what a blessing they are, even though they can be very annoying sometimes. Is there anything else back there? hmmmmmm? whats this? oh, that's the fact that I am alive and breathing in this moment with a God that loves me. That ones so covered with the dust of my imaginings of I-phones, flat stomachs and endless bank accounts, I cant even see it! I have found that with a little practice I can distill my gratitude down to the simplest  blessings that make me whole, and be at peace.