the meaning of gratitude

i was drawn to this forum so i thought id write my recent little epiphany on gratitude...
i never understood how i could be grateful for something. it has always been difficult for me to understand why i should be grateful for one thing or another - to me everything that exists, exists for a reason, and i guess i felt that me being grateful, whether it was a thing, situation, or something that someone had done for me, didnt make much sense. i couldnt actually feel grateful - and i guess that`s sort of along the lines of reason i thought made sense to me.

but.

the other day, i realised, what i CAN do wholeheartedly, and with EVERYTHING, with joy in my heart and feel like it is a total enrichment of my energy and intention. that is, to be grateful for something for being exactly what it is, or grateful for people for being exactly who they are and doing exaclty what they are doing. looking around my room i could feel grateful for everything- grateful to my surfboard for being exactly what it is, for bringing it`s very creative existance into the physcial realm; grateful for the painting for being exactly what it is and not a detail different; grateful to each person i know for being exaclty who they are and not a single detail different.

if i say im grateful for the delicious meal being served tonight, what im really saying is thankyou to my mother for having made it, and to all those who put theri work in - in other words, for them being them, doing what they have done. thats the hidden part of the message, though it sounds like im saying i appreciate that the meal is in front of me...

so now, instead i would say:
im grateful to all those who made this food in front of me for doing what they did. im also grateful that this food in front of me is this food.

my understanding of gratitude is: to be totally grateful for something BEING exactly as it IS!