How sweet it is!

“How sweet it is!” – Jackie Gleason

These simple words, first spoken by the great entertainer Jackie Gleason, are more than a catchphrase; they are a hymn to the joy of living. “How sweet it is!” — a cry of gratitude, of wonder, of triumphant delight in the beauty of existence. Gleason, a man of laughter and excess, a man who knew both success and sorrow, offered these words as a celebration of the moment when life itself tastes rich upon the tongue. To some, it was a showman’s exclamation. But to those who listen with the ears of the spirit, it is something deeper — a recognition of life’s fleeting glory and the sweetness hidden even in its imperfection.

In the manner of the ancients, one might say that this phrase is the utterance of a soul awakened to appreciation. It is not the sweetness of wealth, nor the sweetness of victory alone, but the sweetness of being. For the wise know that joy is not found in grand events but in the quiet pulse of the present moment — in laughter shared, in a meal savored, in the sun’s warmth upon the skin. Gleason’s words, though born in the bright lights of the stage, carry the same essence as the sayings of the Stoics and the mystics: gratitude is the root of peace. To look upon life and say “How sweet it is” is to bless it — to see not what is lacking, but what is luminous.

Consider, for a moment, the story of Helen Keller, who was born into a world of darkness and silence. For her, the sweetness of life did not come easily. It was won through struggle, through the fierce patience of her teacher, and through her own indomitable will. Yet when Helen learned to understand language through the touch of her hand, when she felt the cool rush of water and grasped the meaning of “W-A-T-E-R,” she was reborn. That moment — that recognition — was the soul’s exclamation: “How sweet it is!” For in that instant, she was not deprived; she was alive. The sweetness of life does not lie in what we have, but in how deeply we feel what is given.

To say “How sweet it is!” is also an act of rebellion against despair. In every age, the world offers sorrow — war, loss, loneliness. But to taste sweetness even amid suffering is to defy the darkness. It is to stand like a torch in the wind, declaring that life, for all its bitterness, still has honey hidden within it. This was the strength of those who endured exile, famine, and the long march of hardship: they found sweetness not by fleeing the pain, but by finding meaning within it. As the ancients taught, joy and sorrow are twin siblings — to embrace one without the other is to misunderstand both.

And there is heroism in such sweetness. For it is not the shallow pleasure of comfort, but the deep joy of awareness. When a soldier returns from war and feels again the peace of his homeland, when an old woman sits beneath her garden tree and hears the laughter of her grandchildren — in that moment, the soul whispers Gleason’s immortal words. “How sweet it is.” Not as a slogan, but as a truth revealed through endurance. Life’s sweetness grows sharper when it has been tested, like fruit that ripens only after surviving the storm.

The lesson is this: cultivate the heart that can say “How sweet it is” not only when the wine flows and the music plays, but also in the still hours of trial. Gratitude is not a feeling we wait for; it is a discipline we practice. Each dawn you wake, say to yourself: this breath, this day, this chance — how sweet they are. And in doing so, you transform your vision; bitterness loses its power, and even the simplest act becomes radiant with meaning.

Let your life, then, be a song of thankfulness. Savor the sweetness in a kind word, in the scent of rain, in the memory of a friend. Do not wait for perfection — the world is sweet because it is fragile. Like Gleason’s laughter echoing through time, let your own voice carry the joy of being alive. And when the day ends, and the sun sinks low, whisper once more to yourself, as the wise and joyful have done before you: “How sweet it is.”