Gratitude Sets My Altitude

Gratitude Sets My Altitude

For years, I lived with a heart that would sometimes slip out of rhythm. It would beat unevenly for a moment and then, just as suddenly, slip back into place. I didn’t realize the severity of what was happening. It was an invisible defect, one that I carried without fully knowing the weight of it.

Then came a stretch of two weeks where my heart stayed out of rhythm. Day after day, it beat unevenly, and this time it didn’t correct itself. I didn’t know if it would ever go back. The uncertainty pressed down on me, and for the first time, I realized just how fragile my situation was.

Eventually, the doctors had to shock my heart back into rhythm with paddles. And it was during that moment, in the middle of a procedure meant to restore order, that they discovered something deeper: a hole in my heart that required open-heart surgery. Suddenly, everything I had taken for granted was put on hold. I wasn’t allowed to lift more than five pounds. I couldn’t go out in the sun. I couldn’t participate in life the way I had before. I had to slow down, to live carefully, to wait.

Those limits were hard. They forced me to face the reality of what I had lost. But they also gave me a new lens to see what I still had. My wife by my side. My daughter carrying equipment that I couldn’t. The chance, even in weakness, to be present with them.

Today, my heart is back in rhythm. I can breathe. I can move. I can walk with strength again. And as I do, I choose gratitude. Because the truth is, I could focus on what’s broken. I could fix my eyes on the things that aren’t the way I want them to be. But gratitude calls me higher. Gratitude says, “Look at what’s been restored. Look at who walks beside you. Look at the gift of another day.”

Gratitude has changed me. It’s not just words—it’s how I live. It’s the choice that sets my altitude. When I sink into worry, I stay grounded, staring at what’s missing. But when I choose gratitude, I rise. I see clearly how much I’ve been given—my wife, my daughter, my life itself.

And with every step, I carry this truth: gratitude lifts me higher than circumstance ever could.