As Reported In The SF Chronicle  
 
If you read the front page story of the San Francisco Chronicle on Thursday, Dec 15, 2005, you would have read about a female humpback whale who had become entangled in a spider web of crab traps and lines. 

The fifty-foot whale was weighted down by hundreds of pounds of traps that caused her to struggle to stay afloat. She also had hundreds of yards of line rope wrapped around her her tail, her torso and a line tugging in her mouth. 

A fisherman spotted her just east of the Farallone Islands (outside the Golden Gate) and radioed an environmental group for help. Within a few hours, the rescue team arrived and determined that she was so bad off, the only way to save her was to dive in and untangle her - a very dangerous proposition. One slap of the tail could kill a rescuer. 

They worked for hours with curved knives and eventually freed her. When she was free, the divers say she swam in what seemed like joyous circles. She then came back to each and every diver, one at a time, and nudged them, pushed them gently around - she thanked them. Some said it was the most incredibly beautiful experience of their lives. 

The guy who cut the rope out of her mouth says her eye was following him the whole time, and he will never be the same. 

May you, and all those you love, be so blessed and fortunate in the New Year -to be surrounded by people who will help you get untangled from the things that are binding you.

And, may you always know the joy of giving and receiving gratitude. 

From the  following site

How to be happy

So it's been a rough couple of months. Three months ago my car died 300 miles away from home. Thought it would be best to repair it, love my car. As of today, my car is yet again in the shop. Then my refrigerator died while away for the weekend. Then my computer caught a virus. Just yesterday it caught another virus. When your computer catches a virus, your computer is out of commission for days. Did I mention that my shower has a funky smell coming out of it and needs to be pulled up and replaced? You can see where this is going, I've had a lot of things break recently. As a result, I've been spending a lot of time and great deal of brain real estate, blaming, feeling mistreated by the gods and really annoyed. I have even imagined that maybe I was having a serious case of ‘why me’.
Then something miraculous happened this morning. I noticed that my 10-year-old coffee maker once again made the perfect cup of coffee. Ha! So, I told my Cuisinart coffee maker thank you for working so hard, out loud. Then with intention, I acknowledged stuff that worked. By the time I made it to work, I counted ten things that I plugged into, flipped on or connected to and it all happened seamlessly. Sounds silly right? But guess what? I regained perspective and recognized that many things actually do work in my life. I felt myself become calmer, happier and grateful. No this is not some kind of trick that I played on myself.
Take a look at the above picture, do you see both the faces and the vase? The human mind perceptual system categories the visual into figure and ground. Remember Psych 101 on figure and ground? We tend to see the figure first and then the background that makes up everything else. In our families or workplace we see problems as the figure and everything else is the ground. Both exist, but what we choose to see can change your life. So I challenge you today to do this exercise; notice the little things today. Be grateful for the simple. I did it with appliances and felt better, just think if we notice those little things with the people in our lives! Donald Petersen, the former chairman of Ford Motor Company, sent handwritten notes to his employees of thanks for modest accomplishments. He took noticing the little things to the next level, by sharing his appreciation. Often when I ask people what they are grateful for they say God, family, friends or their health. Make no mistake these are incredibly important, but it becomes almost glib and doesn't resonate in a meaningful way. Let's not stop there, dig deeper. See and compliment your kid for being on time, tell your coworker she tells the best weekend stories or just smile ear to ear, when your microwave heats your coffee in 30 seconds (remember folks there was a time that could not happen).

By: Martha Selleck