A reminder

I've been feeling rather blue today, down about a few different things. As I walked along the trail late this morning, Aedan snoring in the carrier on my chest, I was lost in my head, picking over my sadness and holding up the worst bits to the light. My internal monologue was bleak, and I was hardly paying any attention to the forest around me.

Suddenly, I stopped. Before my eyes, a strand of lichen, like long, course black hair, was draped over a low hanging branch. Pendant upon the lichen was a crystal of ice. As I stood staring at the sunlight glinting off the ice, I heard the territorial drumming of a woodpecker echoing through the trees.

I stood, listening for a time, completely pulled out of my melancholy.

The nagging chatter in my head was silent.

The ache in my breast subsided.

I was abruptly brought back into the moment, and reminded that this life can be so simple and so beautiful.