Our second son had a childhood friend who lived in the hills. They spent hours outside doing those things that parents just barely approve of, because they sometimes end badly. Micah had a few close calls there, falling off a wall, or hiking a bit too far and getting lost. Once the pack of boys climbed into a parked car, one of whom knocked the brake off. They went careening down the driveway and narrowly missed crashing over an edge. A picket fence gave its life for them.  

 

But Micah was not actually with his buddy when the rattlesnake bit. His friend ended up perilously close to death before the antivenom drug pulled him back. 

 

The bill was pretty steep. Yet who can put a price tag on your child? Fortunately for those people who coexist with reptiles, hospitals have vials at the ready. 

 

I have never been in the market for such a drug, though I have been saved many times by an antidote that is free. 

 

Gratitude has within it magical properties that work as antibodies to a number of ills. Resentment. Jealousy. Criticism. Those infections dissolve when I pause just long enough to appreciate what is right in front of me. The other day I was stewing over some stupid negativity involving John that had bitten me. The poisonous thoughts began to swell and throb. Then John handed me a smoothie. I had not asked for one, but he guessed that I would enjoy one on a toasty day. He was right. Instantly the venomous complaints retreated under the rock they came from. 

 

It was convenient that John appeared just then to rescue me from snaky ideas. But it is within my power to access gratitude for things past. There are entire shelves of memories stored up in my mind poised for me to pull them down and enjoy all over again.