Grateful attitude

"A single grateful thought toward heaven is the most complete prayer."--Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

The above quote is so often repeated in one form or another that it must contain truth.  I was recently with someone who focused on negativity:  noting the pain or shame in other's lives.  It was interesting to observe.  It reminded me to increase my own practice of nonjudgment and gratitude.  It is so easy in our human experience to see all that has not gone the way we want or think it should, all of the things that seem imperfect, all the dreams that did not come to be.  Is it possible that heaven is here on earth, and that it just takes a change in our perspective to realize that?  Certainly, it does seem true that there are both good and bad events for us to notice.  Does it serve us to notice the negative?  I don't think so.