Imagine you’re driving along a Colorado roadway.

Look up and you’ll see the majestic mountainsides and a big, blue sky. You’ll see treetops reaching for that sky, swaying gently in a mountain breeze. You’ll see a Colorado sunrise or sunset in all its glory.

Look down and you’ll see ugly pavement scarring the landscape. You’ll see trash, downed branches and perhaps even roadkill. You’ll see trampled brown prairie grass competing with noxious weeds for a footing in the dry soil.

Both views are there no matter where you go. You don’t have the power or authority to eliminate one or the other. What you can control is which view will be your focus.

I choose to look up and live a life of gratitude. I make that choice daily. Sometimes I slip and wallow in the ugliness. The good news is that I can choose to stop wallowing anytime I like.

“Gratitude enables us to savor the unrecognized good that surrounds us, no matter what the circumstances,” says the book ‘How Al-Anon Works for Families & Friends of Alcoholics.’

It was through Al-Anon that I learned that happiness is a choice. With the Thanksgiving holiday upon us, it’s a good opportunity to sharpen that focus.

“As we become accustomed to noticing the positive aspects of our lives, we begin to recognize small, subtle gifts and cloaked opportunities when they appear in our day-to-day experience,” the book says. “We replace our victim mentality with an attitude of gratitude.

“Thus, everyone and everything has a special gift to offer us. We need only open our eyes to see it.”

Gratitude doesn’t fix things. If you have problems, they will still be there. Gratitude won’t change the circumstances of your life. What it will do is allow you to look beyond circumstances and focus on what’s really important.

“Being happy doesn’t mean that everything is perfect,” wrote author/producer/songwriter Gerard Way. “It means that you’ve decided to look beyond the imperfections.”

You can be grateful for what you have and what is. Too often, we live among the resentment of what we lack and what isn’t. The first view liberates, the second enslaves.

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more,” says contemporary writer Melody Beattie. “It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”

My father used to tell us that there are two rules that lead to a happy life. The first is “don’t sweat the small stuff.” The second is “it’s all small stuff.”

In other words, look up.