On gratitude and appreciation

I had a wonderful conversation with Nina about the difference between gratitude and appreciation. Her view, which makes sense to me, is that gratitude it a feeling of overcoming a negative emotion and arriving at the other side(my words). One has to feel gratitude well up deep inside their soul and is a great feeling to have. All of life's lessons can be seen clearly through the eyes of gratitude. Appreciation, on the other hand, is a state of grace in some ways as one is able to move about the world with a new set of glasses where all of life can be appreciated. I would imagine if we all appreciated the world around us it would naturally be a better place. I aspire to feel that sense of ultimate appreciation for life's challenges equally with it's blessings. Sometimes the biggest challenges become our greatest blessing and if we can appreciate that then we have entered a state of grace for a moment. It is a thought to ponder. True appreciation would be void of judgment. To appreciate is to see and love the beauty of that which is being appreciated. So tell someone who you truly appreciate just how much they mean to you. It will make you both feel great ! I appreciate everyone who reads this blog and I feel gratitude for the ability to write in this way.