Continuous practice, day after day, is the most appropriate way of expressing gratitude.

This means that you practice continuously, without wasting a single day of your life, without using it for your own sake.

Why is it so? Your life is a fortunate outcome of the continuous practice of the past. You should express your gratitude immediately.

Dogen quoted in Kazuaki Tanahashi,  Enlightenment Unfolds Kazuaki Tanahashi