Zen Roshi John Daido Loori said, “Expressing gratitude is transformative, just as transformative as expressing complaint. Expressing gratitude can, indeed, change our way of seeing ourselves and the world.”

Imagine that it’s early morning. You are sound asleep. Your alarm goes off. You reach over and hit the snooze button, but the beeping doesn’t stop. You open your eyes and hit the snooze button again, this time more forcefully, but it keeps on beeping. You sit up and jerk the clock’s cord out of the socket.

What an awful way to start the morning!

You get up and go to the bathroom. The toilet won’t flush, no matter how many times you jiggle the handle. You move to the sink to brush your teeth, but the water won’t come on.

Maybe this is just a bad dream, from which you’ll awaken once you have your morning coffee. You walk into the kitchen. Your fancy computerized coffeemaker, that always has a supply of caffeine ready for you, has leaked water and coffee grounds all over the counter and onto the floor. Because it’s a work day, going back to bed is not an option, so you head out to work.

As you’re driving, the person in the lane beside you cuts in front of you, actually running you off the road. Thank God there’s no accident, but as you can imagine, you’re pretty shaken when you walk in the door at work.

If you’re like me, you start complaining about your unbelievably bad morning to the first person you encounter. You’re still grumbling at the end of the day and at the end of the week, with the story becoming more dramatic with each re-telling.

Now … let’s go back and start this day again.

Once again, your alarm clock goes off. You hit the snooze, which works perfectly, giving you another five minutes of luxurious sleep. You go to the bathroom and the toilet flushes just the way it’s supposed to. You move to the sink to brush your teeth, and find running water. In the kitchen, the aroma of fresh, hot, perfectly brewed coffee greets you. You drive to work and no one cuts in front of you, causing you to swerve off the road.

Imagine yourself walking into work. Are you so filled with gratitude for all the wonderful things that have happened to you that morning that you can’t wait to tell your colleagues? You can’t wait to tell them about your toilet flushing and your water running and your coffee brewing, not to mention not being run off the road by anyone?

Again, if you are like me, most of the time I never even realize, much less express, gratefulness for all of those incredibly positive things that happen day after day after day.

An attitude of gratitude. For 20 days, try expressing gratefulness rather than complaints. I guarantee that your life, or at least your view of life, will change.

Susie Smith is the pastor of Peace Congregational Church, UCC, in Clemson.