When I was young, my dad often took my brothers and me fishing. We didn’t catch much, and sometimes the mosquitos made watching the bobber difficult, but learning how to cast a line and reel it in, along with sitting in the quiet of nature, made it fun. My dad continued the fishing tradition (with about the same level of success, fish-wise) with our kids. In hindsight, the experience itself was the success, not the number fish we caught.

On a recent podcast, I heard a story about how experienced fishermen wear polarized sunglasses. Those specialized glasses give them the ability to see the fish swimming in the water so they know where to cast the line or dip the net. The fish are always there; those fishing just have a hard time seeing them.

The podcast storyteller, author Greg McKeown, compared those polarized sunglasses to gratitude, saying that “If you focus on what you have, you gain what you lack. And if you focus on what you lack, you lose what you have.” Gratitude gives the ability to see what is always there.

I am grateful for those fishing expeditions with my dad. And each time I put on my sunglasses, I’ll remember that the lens through which I view the world makes a difference.