Last week, CNN aired an interview of Stephen Colbert by Anderson Cooper. From his time on “The Daily Show,” through “The Colbert Report,” and now on “The Late Show,” Colbert has always been one of my favorite TV personalities, his blend of wittiness and political satire are my kind of humor. After years of maintaining his on-air Colbert pundit personality, I always enjoy an opportunity to see the “real” Stephen Colbert, and this interview did not disappoint.

There was a point where Cooper, who recently lost his mother, and Colbert, who lost his father and two brothers in a plane crash when he was 10, started to discuss loss. First of all, seeing two grown men tearing up on national television, and showing such raw emotion and compassion for each other was a breath of fresh air, a welcome change from some of the nastiness that has been dominating the news cycles lately. Secondly, since it’s also the time of year that I lost my own father, a lot of their emotion resonated with me.

One quote in particular from Colbert, “I want it to not have happened, but if you are grateful for your life, which I think is a positive thing to do, not everybody is — and I am not always — but it’s the most positive thing to do, then you have to be grateful for all of it. You can’t pick and choose what you’re grateful for,” really hit home.

Practicing gratitude is something that I’ve been working at, and believe me, it’s taking a lot of work. I am a pessimist by nature, and a lot of times, if the glass isn’t half-empty, I can be guilty of dumping a little bit out to make it so. Once you have kids, though, you realize that they imitate what they see and model the behavior that they are exposed to regularly, and all of a sudden, it becomes imperative that you not walk around emulating Eeyore all the time.

A funny thing happened as I tried to change my outlook and my natural Gloomy Gus “for the kids’ sake.” I started to become more optimistic and started seeing more opportunities instead of dead ends. Don’t get me wrong, when things go south, my first impulse is still to say, “why me?” and to mope, but I’m training myself to look at the bright side, or at least hope that a bright side is coming.

One of exercises that I’ve done to help with this is go back to times of my life that I thought were “as bad as they could be” or times when life took a turn that I didn’t want it to and my world was rocked. Then, with the benefit of hindsight, I’ve followed the path that my life has taken since that “wrong turn” and noted the positive things that could not have happened without what I felt was the worst thing ever happening first.

The easiest plus to focus on is the one that ultimately brought the Wonderful Husband and I together. Having been friends since we were about 15, we didn’t get married until we were 32. Although our paths crossed many times over the years, for one reason or another we never clicked. However, now I can safely say that every disastrous breakup and awful boyfriend I had in between helped me truly appreciate the WH’s best qualities when we finally did get together. Now I can safely say that every single time my heart was broken, I can be grateful that it was being made stronger.

One of the other hugest disappointments in my life was not getting a coaching job at one school, which ultimately led to me getting a job with a club team that ultimately expanded my coaching horizons beyond my wildest dreams and helped me create a network of both friends and contacts in the swimming world that have lasted a lifetime. But one year, a late snowstorm in March really emphasized how lucky this break was for me.

The district I had wanted the job in had school, which would have meant that I had to have practice. The club that I got the job in ended up canceling their practice for the evening, which meant that I had a free evening to hit the gym early. As I was warming up, the WH was finishing his circuit, and as he was leaving, we finally made the connection that would lead to 14 years and three kids later.

Retrospectively, it’s very easy to become grateful for things that have happened in the past and have worked out well. It’s a lot harder to be grateful for things that don’t seem to have a reason, like A’s heart defect. It’s especially hard to help him be grateful for it.

Over the course of the process, I’ve become exceedingly grateful for dedicated health professionals, for our extended family of other heart families, our own “village,” and for the tireless efforts of other volunteers and advocates who work tirelessly to improve the lives of kids with special hearts everywhere. I’ve become grateful for the resiliency of infants who can’t even comprehend the battle they’re fighting. I’ve become grateful for the smallest accomplishments, and as the bigger ones have come along, my own heart has almost exploded from the gratefulness.

Harder still is to simultaneously worry about the future and try to plan for what it may bring and still maintain a grasp on gratefulness, but getting a reminder like “not being able to pick and choose” what and when to be grateful helps. Wishing things away also wishes away all the other side effects, both negative and positive. As I’m faced with more and more unrest, upset and change in the world, both in my backyard, and on a broader front, I know I’m going to be more challenged on this front, but I’m going to try to be a lot less picky and embrace being grateful for the challenge.

Liz Pinkey is a contributing writer to the Times News. Her column appears weekly in our Saturday feature section.