If I stop to watch the news, our nation is not in a good place. As of today, 918,000 U.S. citizens have died of COVID in less than two years. Families have suffered the loss of loved ones; businesses have shuttered their doors; our education system is strained, with teachers leaving the profession in droves; and relationships have shattered after lockdowns and changes in life circumstances. Climate change has wreaked havoc on the weather across the entire nation, with massive swings in temperatures, huge storms, and droughts. Our country’s politics have become divisive and hateful, with politicians turning on each other and then on their own party members. And people are so on edge that they attack flight attendants on planes who are just doing their jobs.

You might ask, how can I feel grateful when there is so much sickness in the world? How can I find beauty in situations that are downright ugly?

First, you need to look for it, truly seek it out. Beauty doesn’t need to knock you over the head. It can be subtle. I’ll tell you what I have taken note of, in an effort to be grateful for even the smallest blessings.

1. When I fly as a travel writer, I never get a window seat on a plane, but due to limited seating, that’s where I found myself on my most recent trip. Imagine my surprise when I looked out the window to see snow-capped mountains surrounding an icy blue glacial lake. Pure beauty that I would have missed had I been in my usual aisle seat, my head buried in a phone game or a book. Look up! It’s amazing what you’ll find.
2. My son lives far away, and I only get to see him a couple of times a year. I could sulk about that, envy all my friends whose kids are close by, but I choose to be grateful for our phone conversations. They always go on and on as we move from topic to topic, and sometimes I think we’re even closer than we would be if we could be together all the time. Somehow, the distance makes the heart grow fonder.
3. My friend lost her 31-year-old son to a drug overdose. He’s been struggling for most of his life, and his parents suffer from PTSD after multiple calls to paramedics upon finding him lifeless. Even though they felt in their hearts this would happen someday, nothing could have prepared them or helped them accept the reality and finality of his death. I can’t imagine their pain and suffering, yet they have found a way to go on. Their friends have rallied around them, surrounding them with love. They continue to turn to God for strength and understanding. They have a long way to go toward healing, but they are walking in the right direction.
4. As I travel around our nation, I meet people who make a living off the land. They have labored to turn a crop in the harshest of climate conditions, including wildfires, drought, ravaging storms, and extreme heat or cold. Their perseverance is a lesson in hope and optimism. They adjust, and adjust again, and adapt, and find a way to make the best of a poor situation. Sometimes, they even get better at what they do and discover that the outcome may not be what they had planned, but is maybe even more unique, more special than anything they could have expected.

Romans 5:2-5 says, “… we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

We are not silly or naïve for having hope, even when all around us says otherwise. The worst things in the world that can happen to us will devastate us, even paralyze us, but when we work to find gratitude, we will begin to see that our immediate reactions aren’t necessarily lasting ones. We can heal. We can grow. We can come out better.

Sometimes, I struggle to find gratitude. But once I identify one thing to be grateful for, then a second, the third is quicker to come, the fourth even more so. I encourage you to find the first thing, then the second. You’ll be surprised to find that there’s a bundle of blessings in your life, even if you have to dig hard to find them.