It’s easy to become wrapped up in what is wrong and difficult in our lives, easy to lose perspective of the larger picture. But when we shift our perspective, life gets better.

For most of my life, I have been a seeker: a seeker of truth, understanding, and also happiness. Seeking understanding and wisdom is honorable enough, but the happiness bit has been somewhat challenging.

Two weeks ago, I was about to get to writing a little something about gratitude for this newsletter when the unexpected randomness of Life happened. My companion, Baci (whom you may recall from his recent celebrity appearance in this column) had a disc rupture, leaving his back legs paralyzed.

Before we zoom over Thanksgiving on our way to Christmas/New Years/Spring Break/Next Summer, I would like to pause to consider the most basic and greatest of gratitudes: that we have the privilege of being here at all.

It’s been two months since my last communication and I feel compelled to catch up. A lot has happened, the first and most significant of which affected all of us here on the West Coast. No, I’m not talking about the demoralizing implosion of the San Francisco Giants and the subsequent, equally depressing success of the Dodgers

It was gorgeous last weekend, the perfect opportunity to get the kids out of the house, enjoy some time together, and do a bit of Christmas reconnaissance shopping. We walked the half-mile to town in the crisp, cold December morning under a dazzling blue sky, birds flitting and deer grazing in the open field we passed.

Recently I met with a doctor who asked me what I did for a living. When I said I was a counselor he replied, “Thank you.” I must have looked at him quizzically because he immediately followed this by looking right at me and saying, “Thank you for doing that work. It’s so important.”

Being slowed down by loss or pain offers a blessing: it replaces all the details and to-do lists with a centered simplicity.