“Hashem said to Moshe ‘Say to Aharon: Stretch out your hand and strike the soil of the land and it will become lice throughout the land of Egypt.’”
(Shemos 8:12)

“Rabi Tanchum says: Hashem said to Moshe ‘It is not right for the soil that protected you when you killed the Egyptian to be struck by you. Therefore you should inflict these three plagues through Aharon’ ” (Midrash).
When Moshe Rabbeinu killed the Egyptian he buried him in the ground. It would not have been proper for the ground to be stricken with the plague of lice through Moshe’s hands since he needed to show gratitude to the earth so he was commanded to do it through Aharon.
From this we can derive a novel insight into the subject of hakaras hatov. Ostensibly it seems to be a question of repaying a kindness; when one person does something kind for another the recipient should recognize his benefactor and repay good with good and not with evil. But in this case the earth was inanimate and had no free will. If Moshe buried the Egyptian in the ground the ground could neither oppose him nor agree to it so why should he repay its “favor”? First of all the ground was passive and did nothing for him and secondly it is not capable of being embarrassed or feeling hurt and it would not have suffered from being infested with lice. Why then did hakaras hatov have any bearing on this? (Zichron Meir Rav Meir Rubman)
Hashem has designed our life and each passing day is recorded in the book of our lives in accordance with His plan. But we and only we decide what type of book it is and what titles are given to the chapters.
Sometimes the heroine of our story gets up in the morning and finds that once again she’s running late for work but there’s no one else to prepare her children’s lunches. And she finishes her day with a sigh wondering why her 17-year-old daughter still washes dishes without cleaning the sink afterward.
She could have written that chapter entirely differently.
She could have gotten up in the morning and thanked G-d her children are healthy and have hearty appetites. That she has a job to hurry to. And finished her day with a smile as her daughter a busy high school student found the time to help with the dishes.
We learn from this that hakaras hatov is the commendable human trait of appreciating a benefit regardless of where it comes from and desiring to express the recognition of the kindness one has received. It’s not because the benefactor needs anything from the recipient of his good deed; rather it’s simply the demand of the soul to repay one good turn with another. This is a praiseworthy attribute of a human soul. (ibid.)
Hakaras hatov isn’t something we give to another person; it isn’t some sort of payback for a favor or service received. Hakaras hatov is something we give to ourselves; it’s a gift of quality of life for ourselves something that touches the depths of our emotions and opens up new chapters of joy in the books of our lives.
And the reverse is also true: If a person is ungrateful if he doesn’t recognize the kindnesses he’s received and he can repay kindness with evil that’s a blemish in his soul. From his own standpoint how can he do such a thing? How can he repay a good turn with a bad deed? According to this understanding the concept of hakaras hatov certainly applies even to an inanimate object even though it makes no difference to the object itself how it is treated — since the difference lies in the person who benefited from it and he is certainly capable of feeling the difference. (ibid.)
Hakaras hatov means being thankful for the help my husband offered me during bedtime and for the comfortable sofa I sank into afterward. True he’s the father of these children and I paid for the sofa but so what? Hakaras hatov doesn’t depend on the magnitude of what the other side gave me. Hakaras hatov is about my own understanding of the magnitude of what I’ve received.
And I receive so much every hour of every day.