I don’t know what it was about thefirst Wednesday morning in September at the park. Maybe because the week before I felt cranky and kinda down in the dumps. But that first Wednesday of the month? That day, everything felt like a miracle.

Ant and I have walked every morning that first week in September four mornings in a row! We’re seeing the same groups of people. One of the ladies laughed so hard at Ant’s shirt from the only walk we took at the end of August (“In my defense, I was left unsupervised.”) And they’ve been there again this week. And there’s one gentleman who pretty much inquired why Ant and I don’t walk together. (Oh yeah, we don’t walk together. We walk opposite of each other because Ant’s stride is longer than mine and he can do like four laps in half an hour.) Another gentleman, who we saw the day before, responded to my “How are ya today?” that he wasn’t sure, but when I passed him again on my last lap, he was like, “Okay, I know now: I feel good!”

The morning sunrise was beautiful.

I saw a leaf shaped like a heart.

And then at work, the kiddos fell asleep on their circle swing. I ran inside to get them and myself a blanket. After making sure they were good, I wrapped myself up the other blanket and settled in to read about Helm’s Deep in The Two Towers. I looked above my head and at the towering pine trees—I just felt like I was camping.

The pretty blue bowls with white flowers. The yellow leaf I had the kids feel how soft it was.

All the little details felt magical. They carried me throughout the day.

I got a bit down again that night, but I continued handwriting the current flash fiction story I’m writing and ended the night with an episode of Parks and Rec with Ant. *chef’s kiss*

And then the next day, there were more small moments that are really big moments: playing ball with the kids, the pretty purple flowers in their backyard, and the little owl in the playroom wearing a birthday hat.

And then to come home and hear about Ant’s calls from contractors (woohoo work! Praise God!). And smell all of Claire’s perfume scents again to buy the roller ball (my first perfume ever as a grown woman). And then to catch up with hedgies and jot all these thoughts down. And then the bread on Ant’s plate that looked like a face.

What a beautiful, magical life there is around us. This isn’t always the easiest thing to notice.

During what we can lovingly now call our 12 Weeks of Darkness (end of January through March), I wasn’t noticing a lot of these things. I held onto my 8:30pm prickle, even if I didn’t write, and Friday night movie nights, and one single good day with Moochy.

But it really is all around us. And I’m so grateful my camera roll is full of these bright, shining details, and that now you get to see them too.

What are some bright moments in your day, from your week?