The words of the Midrash sound in my ears: “The wicked is as one dead, even in his lifetime, for he sees the sun rise without reciting the blessing , “You form light,” he sees its setting without reciting the blessing, “Whose word brings the evening dusk”; he eats and drinks without thanking God. But the righteous thank God for whatever they eat and drink and see and hear.” What does the Midrash mean? Surely the mere recitation of “You form light” and “Whose word brings the evening dusk” cannot infuse life into the righteous any more than the failure to recite them can deprive the wicked of life so that he should be “as one dead.” The meaning of the Midrash is that the wicked is so dead spiritually that he cannot feel the need to recite the blessing and take delight in so doing; he is so dead that he cannot sense the mystery in the rising and setting of the sun, in the peace of bread that he eats and the measure of water that he drinks; he is unaware of the eternal link between these things and the whole of existence and with God who dwells in this existence. The wicked is as one dead because he has lost the sense of wonder, because he views the appearances of eternity as mundane happenings.” -Chayyim Greenberg
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"To wake in the morning is to be reborn. Nothing is to be taken for granted, certainly not life itself. The first word of prayer is perhaps the most important: modeh, I am thankful. The essence of prayer is the grateful acknowledgement of the gifts we have been given.” - Rabbi Reuven Hammer on the Modeh Ani in Or Shalom commentary.
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A friend of mine, Rabbi Leibel Benjaminson, described a self-improvement ("mussar") group in which he participated. In order to improve their sense of gratitude, everyone in the group was to select one thing that they do frequently - and then think for 10 minutes about its ramifications.
My friend drank one cup of coffee every morning, and he chose this cup of coffee as his subject. He felt it would be easier to work on the assignment if he wrote his thoughts on paper. To his surprise, the 10 minutes quickly turned into 35. He wrote about how the coffee beans grew in Brazil. Someone planted the trees and took care of them until the coffee reached maturity. Then workers picked the beans from the trees. The beans were roasted and ground, and packed for shipping. He described all the work involved in the shipping industry which allowed the coffee to reach the United States. This alone required hundreds of people. Finally, the coffee arrived at the port in Haifa from where it was taken to his grocery story in Jerusalem.
He wrote about the gas range that boiled the water, and the match he used. (And how much easier it is to use a match rather than have to rub two sticks together!) He wrote about how the gas reached his home and what was necessary to build his stove. He wrote about the water kettle that whistled to let him know that the water had boiled. The milk he added required the work of many people from the time it left the cow until it reached his coffee cup.
At the end of 35 minutes, he saw he had not even begun to write about the actual cup, saucer, or teaspoon nor the table he placed it on, or the chair he sat on!!
Through this exercise, he became aware of so many things he'd been taking for granted. This awareness led him to a most intense spiritual experience. His prayers for the next few weeks were permeated with a deep feeling of gratitude to the Almighty. - Rabbi Zelig Pliskin, Gateway to Happiness
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