You're reading this, so you're not dead yet. Another day above ground, as they say. Six percent of all humans who have ever lived are alive today, the other 94

percent are... well... not.

Whoever you are, wherever you are, you almost certainly have a few people in your life that like you for who you are. There is nothing like a posse, however small,

for feeling validated.

Since you're reading this, you know you can turn letters on a page or screen into ideas, which is the key to exploring most of what humankind has learned in

the last few thousand years. Words can enlighten, empower and energize you in myriad ways. Hey look, they're doing it right now!

Again, we know you're online, since you're reading this, so you have the internet to be thankful for. All human information and millions of hours of #CatFails await your beck and call.

If you didn't crack up at that cat falling down, a trillion things are still out there that might tickle your funny bone, and laughter is another key to living

happily.

You don't need anything to appreciate the magic of colors in the sky and the marvels of the universe.

Life is all around you, and even the tiniest examples can be wondrous to look at. Think about all the planets we know about with no life at all! Whatever

else life is doing to us, we are lucky to be able to experience its gorgeous intricacy. 

You are walking or sitting or rolling around each day with the most complex phenomenon our species has ever encountered, and it's wedged between your pretty little ears. Enjoy your capacity

to think at all. It's a miracle we still barely understand!

Because of your fabulous brain, you can grow from mistakes. Screwing up does not have to be the final word. Be thankful that you can improve, and that you've come

as far as you have.

Because of science, you know tricks about health, technology and business that no generation knew before you. You also get to understand that we are but a tiny part of

an unimaginably vast tapestry of reality, spreading out in all directions as far as the mind can think, or farther.

Be grateful for this understanding. It puts everything else in perspective.

By the same token, you know that if even just a few cosmic constants were one digit different, the universe and everything in it would not, and could not, exist at

all. Not only are you here, but there is a here in which you live that does interesting things all the time. Amazing.