“A happy life is made up of little things…a gift sent, a letter written, a call made, a recommendation given, transportation provided, a cake made, a book lent, a check sent.” 

by Jack Haley and Estelle Loring | Performed by Blossom Dearie

Editor’s comment:  Another “non-fiction that reads more like fiction”.  Jho Low, between graduating from Wharton in 2005 and exposes that began in 2015 appears to have pulled off Madoff-style fraud.  The difference?  It was primarily perpetrated on his home country (Malaysia) and allegedly with the aid of their former Prime Minister, Razak Najib.  Perhaps as much as $5 billion was looted from Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund (1MDB) over a six year period, much of which was used for Gatsby-like lifestyle which included many names you know such as DeNiro, DiCaprio, Hilton and more.  I felt a little seedy reading it but my goodness, what a story!  With many charges still pending against both Low and the former Prime Minister, we are likely to be reading more about this story in the future (if they can find Jho Low who is in hiding).      

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. It turns problems into gifts, failures into successes, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. It can turn an existence into a real life, and disconnected situations into important and beneficial lessons. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. 

-Melody Beattie