Where the Mayflowers Grow

If you tip toe down imaginary paths of damp detritus, through budding forests filled with wee little leaves, push your way through dewy limp sprouts in a palette of greens in every shade your eyes can possibly detect, shirk under dripping hemlock boughs, past fresh ferns unfurling, you'll come to that place, under the protection of massive archaic oaks, where the rich May dusk light dapples the earth, and there, sprinkled with raindrops and golden hour sunshine, grow the mayflowers...robust deep emerald leaves carpeting the forest floor with their spires of tiny white flowers.

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Fun Fact: I was today years old when I learned the Canada Mayflower is also called the Wild Lily of the Valley...not at all ironic as it is also another of my favorite early spring flowers!

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In the early days of May, I had the opportunity to take a small weekend away...camping of course! It was the first time since last October that I have been anywhere except my day job, the grocery store, or family to visit over the holidays. Not even a dinner out, anywhere! Whist I do enjoy nesting in and enjoying my home over the winter months, my world seemed to have been shrinking just a little bit too much. My long term day job was (and still is) fading away right before my eyes, I was stuck in my head...running concentric loops around every possible scenario as to my future. Change was coming and I had knitted myself up into a tightly stitched ball of daily constant anxiety.

...And then I went away. And spent two fleeting days in the mist and the trees and the birdsong, reading a snoozer of book to the crackle of a campfire, wrapped in cozy throw blankets, whilst listening to the faint melody of children giggling and playing in the narrow tree lined lanes as gentle rain drops fell through the new budding leaves...

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Here is a truth: It doesn't have to be this complicated. It doesn't have to be this over-thought. It can if you want it to be, or if you're an over thinker like me you might not have a choice! (Well you do...but easier said than done.) Some situation may require it, I know that, but I'm not referring to the life threatening or that of death, lose your home, divorce your spouse situations...no...just the trials of everyday living...the trials and the tests, the bothers and the changes...the things that drive us nuts vs how important are they really in the long run vs what our response to them should be.

Sometimes it's best to just leave these things under an ancient oak deep within the woods... to be overtaken by mosses, trodden on by scurrying critters, and washed away in the cool spring rains. The Mayflowers won't mind at all.

Take it one day at a time, friends, and don't sweat the small stuff!

Be well,

Archaena