Grace notes

As I was heading to the chiropractor this morning, I was trying to ready myself for the work day ahead. Depression had been my companion the previous night, as you can tell from the entry before this one, and I'd slept rather badly. My mood was shaky at best.

I was still on our neighborhood's one street, no other cars around me, when a bunny hopped into the road in front of me and stopped. I also stopped. It stared at me. I stared at it. Then it hopped away into the neighbor's woods, and I started rolling again.

Three houses down, two young deer--bucks, I saw as I drew closer--were feasting on apples that had fallen from a neighbor's tree. They stopped eating. I stopped moving. They stared at me. I stared at them. After a bit, I rolled forward very slowly and quietly, letting the slope of the street more than the engine carry me away from them. I watched in my rearview mirror as they resumed eating.

I'm stressed and in pain and fighting depression, but a bunny stared me down, and in the clear, mid-morning light I got to watch two deer eat. How cool is that?

Life grants us grace notes, those fleeting moments of magic, far more than we usually realize. Seeing and then cherishing them is the key. These two turned around the start of my day, and for them I am quite, quite grateful.