The world is your apple. It is yours. It is for you. It was made for you. Accept graciously.
The world is an inn you stop at for a little while on your journey. The inn may not have all the amenities you would have liked, yet still it is an inn, and it gives you a bed and shelter and a window to look out from. Enjoy your stay.
There has been a tendency for My children to find it easier to see fault rather than blessing, easier to complain rather than appreciate. Why is this? It is a habit, beloveds, nothing more than any other needless habit you may have.
Habits can be changed. Change this one.
Silently seek out the blessing in everyone and everything. Does this sound Pollyanna? Perhaps it does, yet it is a simple way for you to gain and give happiness. This one thing, noticing what is good about something, good about anything, will spiral your life upward. Is it so hard to do? All you have to do is to remember. When you forget, gently remind yourself that you are here on Earth to appreciate. Develop appreciation, and the world will rise to please you.
Let Us say that you have a benefactor. He wants to donate to you. He offers you a measly nickel. Scoff at the nickel, and how many more nickels will you receive? Appreciate that nickel, and what will reach you next time? Be so happy to receive a nickel, for the next time you may receive a quarter or a quarter million dollars. What is not possible, beloveds, when you repay the world with appreciation?
Acknowledge beforehand that everyone and everything is your benefactor. Even the people who annoy you are your benefactors. They are giving you some kind of opportunity. The opportunity is there. You are annoyed. Bear in mind that it is your annoyance, and how might this annoyance of yours serve you?
If you stumble and fall, what is the good in it? If you have decided ahead of time that there is no possible good in your falling down, you will not find the good in it. You could fall and see a flower close up that you might have missed otherwise. You might learn to watch where you're going. You might learn not to rush so. You might learn to pick up your feet. You might learn that it is perfectly all right to fall.
If you receive an apple with a worm in it, the greater part of the apple does not have a worm in it. If you receive an apple with a worm in it, you at least know that the apple is organic. You might learn that it isn't so awful to find a worm in an apple.
You have known the idea of looking for the good for a long time. Now put it into practice.
If your car breaks down, maybe you get some exercise now. If your car breaks down, maybe you are spared from an accident. At the very least, when your car breaks down, you will be really happy when you get it back.
If someone finds himself in a wheelchair, he can find good in it. He is looking at the world now from a different height and from a new perspective. He has slowed down. And, oh, how now he wishes he had appreciated every moment when he could walk and run and jump! Maybe he has learned the good you are learning from him.
It is really true. There is a silver lining. There really really is. Only you may have to look for it. Appreciate that you can look. Appreciate that if you can look, you can see. Appreciate that if you can hunt, you can find. Appreciate you.