An attitude toward gratitude.

It could happen any time, tornado, earthquake, Armageddon. It could happen. Or sunshine, love, salvation.

It could you know. That's why we wake and look out--no guarantees in this life.

But some bonuses, like morning, like right now, like noon, like evening.

--William Stafford

This short poem by William Stafford (1998) captures an attitude of gratitude that you can find expressed explicitly in at least three of the articles in this issue (and implicitly in others, too). Can you find them? Two appear in the articles about elders. Is this a coincidence? Why do some people feel and express gratitude more as they get older, even as their infirmities increase? Why do they not complain very much? Perhaps it is because the days are going by, and the time that is left becomes deeply cherished. In her article at the end of this issue, Connie Goldman quotes writer Eve Merriam, who says,

 
   Perhaps one of the good …