The Benefit of Keeping an Open Mind to the Possibility of Gratitude

The distance around my elliptical driveway is one-tenth of a mile. I know this because I drove around it, watching the odometer—and then did it again just to be sure. Sometimes in the fall, I take a careful jog-trot around its leaf-strewn gravel, a compromise intended to jump-start a flagging metabolism without putting undue wear and tear on aging joints and narrowing spinal interstices. Five times around makes for a half-mile of elevated heart rate, deep breathing, and an uncluttered mind. 

Of course, the gift of those empty mental parentheses is that I get to decide what I’m thinking about while I’m avoiding loose stones in the path and thanking God for the fiery red Virginia creeper and the rusty orange of fading marigolds. Lately, I’ve been following the example of Jeremiah, the Old Testament prophet who watched the nation of Israel disintegrate before his very eyes.

In Lamentations, Jeremiah…