We are Luckier than We Think

I have a friend that always seems to be content and at peace no matter how many negative things are going on in his life. I ask him the other day “how do you keep from complaining when things are going wrong, I know you have problems like everybody else.”
He looked at me and said “I used to be a chronic complainer, I’d complain because I had to do laundry, clean house, fix my car, my job, my wife, etc….then one day I “real eyesed” that I’d never be able to stop complaining, it was just in my nature”.
I was really surprised by his response “but you never complain, what do you mean when you say you could never stop – it appears you stopped?”
He smiled, “well, a friend told me how fortunate I was to have a full load of laundry, a house to clean, a car to drive, a job to pay my bills, and a wife to keep me company……. you see, he had none of those things and was living under a bridge in a cardboard box……and he told me he was grateful to have the bridge and the box….from that point on when my mind told me to complain, I told it how lucky we were to have something to complain about!” – ‘The Game is the Teacher’