Sitting on a Bench for Five Minutes a Day

I started a new thing this week. A small thing, really. When I walk the dog every afternoon, I stop and sit on a park bench for five minutes.

That’s it. I sit for five minutes; that’s my new thing.

The bench is new. It appeared this summer, fastened onto a concrete slab, a memorial plaque on the ground beneath the seat. It overlooks a field of prairie-ish grass, a small ravine, a couple of oak trees, a Scotch pine. In the summer the field and ravine are speckled with black-eyed susans and Qu...