Gratitude For 'Family' In Cortlandt Manor: 30 Days Of Gratitude

CORTLANDT MANOR, NY — All month, Patch is asking readers to share who they're grateful for. Cortlandt Manor resident Natalia thanks the Male for being friends and treating her like family.

Here's the message Natalia shared:

"I'm grateful for the Male family in Peekskill. They are amazing and loving. Charleen Male thank you for being an awesome friend and Mamma Loretta and also Aunt Cathy for taking me in and treating me like family. I love you all and am very blessed to have you in my life."

Living with gratitude is a matter of continually counting one’s blessings while at the same time recognizing that the source of goodness in one’s life is other people.

Patch will continue publishing stories like this one for "30 Days Of Gratitude," a series to remind us of the goodness and joy in our lives. We want to share the gratitude as widely as we can, and invite you to fill out the form below to show thanks for someone in your life. Your response may be featured on Patch.

Come back to Across America Patch every day through November and read more.

Robert A. Emmons, a University of California, Davis, psychology professor known as the “father of gratitude,” said this of gratitude:

“Gratitude is an affirmation of the goodness in one’s life and the recognition that the sources of this goodness lie at least partially outside the self. It emerges from two stages of information processing: affirming and recognizing. Gratitude is the recognition that life owes me nothing and all the good I have is a gift. It is a response to all that has been given. So it is foundationally and fundamentally a way of looking at life.”