February 2026

by Maria Gabrani

Recently, I heard in a lyric in a mantra song:

“Every experience becomes a gift when seen through gratitude.” *

This strongly resonated with me because it reminded me once again that everything is in our mind, as Buddha teaches us. How we see and perceive the world is our choice. It made me reflect and recall an experience from when I was a young student renting an apartment above a pizza store, with which we shared the heating regulator.

The owner, Mr. Nikos, was a warm-hearted and deeply caring man. We learned so much from him — from preserving, preparing, and cooking food to extending generosity and compassion to struggling students and people experiencing homelessness. But during the windy, deeply subzero winters of Philadelphia, in an apartment with old, wooden, ill-fitting bay windows, we were suffering. The owner could not raise the heat because doing so would make his customers suffer. So when we complained, he always came back to us with the same answer: “It is all in the mind.”

At the time, we didn’t understand him and were often upset by the whole situation. Looking back, a bit wiser than my younger self, oh, the learnings I had! Centralized heating and its perks; the fractal shapes of frost on the windows; the ability to study in lotus posture under blankets; the gift of having four walls and a roof; the greater importance of the happiness and freedom of others!

Indeed, it is all in our mind. Thank you, Buddha. Thank you, Mr. Nikos. So I aspire to wear my gratitude glasses and see the world through a loving, kind, compassionate, grateful lens, and to be curious in each experience to find what gift it brings. I, too, am gratitude!

* “I am Gratitude,” by INNERSEA