When I wake up in the morning, I like to greet the day with a positive, healthy attitude. I like to be grateful for my breath. I like to focus on the positive. I’m awake. I’m alive. I could be dead, and then how would I have my coffee? It’s the little things that matter. Cutting your fingernails after one gets caught on your shirt. Or just noticing that you didn’t put enough water in the coffee maker and the coffee is too black and strong. And you spit it out into the sink and add more water. But you don’t curse this minor infraction. You bless it with a “who cares and let’s move on” attitude.

It’s these small things that matter. Noticing the cat food dish was left out from the night before and the damn cat didn’t finish all the wet food and now you have to throw out half a can of tuna flakes in who knows what kind of chemical gravy because the damn cat didn’t finish it and then you have to scoop more of this tuna surprise or tuna delight or just plain tuna in ugly sauce into a new dish and hope the damn cat doesn’t get finicky again and decline to eat said tuna delight.

It's those small things and how you handle them that make a huge difference in your life. You can choose to be angry at the damn cat and decline to feed him for a week out of protest (don’t try this at home) or you can simply smile and say, “You’re just a damn cat; what else would I expect from such an ungrateful pampered feline?”

And then you have to brush your teeth and floss your teeth (which I always forget to do) and take a shower and not waste too much water—all the while being grateful for the water flowing from your showerhead since you keep hearing on the news there’s a drought and there’s fires and floods and the world is rapidly melting into a giant trash can somewhere in space.

But don’t worry about all of this. We have a lot to be grateful for. We truly do.

No really…

I’m not just making this up.

For with all of life’s tiny inconveniences and major catastrophes, what else is there?

And be grateful you can put mayo on your tuna and not some nasty brown gravy sauce.