One of my very favorite quotes is from Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s The Little Prince: “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

Every time I throw myself into a tizzy because things aren’t going as expected, or as I projected on my Excel spreadsheet for the year 2020, I have to remind myself that I’m looking with the wrong instrument or organ: I need to go back and tell my heart to get some guts and speak up to my head because it’s starting to listen to my eyes again.

For example, when I’m lost in the details–grumpy as hell about having to peddle cans of popcorn, tubs of cookie dough, 50 subscriptions to People magazine, or whatever else the school has managed to push on us parents–I miss the expression of wonder on my son’s face when he discovers the magic of capitalism … that by knocking on 56 doors and begging for money, he has, essentially, won himself a set of tickets to the Orioles game.

Writes Rabbi Harold Kushner: “If you concentrate on finding what is good in every situation, you will discover that your life will suddenly be filled with gratitude.”