Confession: I suffer from horrible post-vacation depression. Even if it’s just a quick weekend getaway, I still feel sad come Monday when it’s all over. So after spending many days in Denver, it’s really, really hard coming back to reality. It will actually take a month or so to get comfortable living in Indy again and for the homesickness to fade to heartwarming, instead of heart-crushing. This disposition frustrates me because I feel like I’m ungrateful; and in reality I’m incredibly thankful for the precious time I could spend in Denver. And I’m quite content living in Indy – I love my home now too. But when I move back and forth, my heart becomes confused and unsure of where “home” is. One of the ways I try to mitigate this is by visiting special places in Indy soon after coming back from vacation to remind myself of what I love here. I also try to focus on things that are similar between my two homes rather than drawing comparisons. Hence, today I found myself at Eagle Creek, as this is one of my favorite places in the city.
Just like for our mountain hikes in Denver, my mom and I packed peanut butter and honey sandwiches and fruit and headed out for a day of hiking. Just like in Denver, we were surrounded by forests of green. Although some of the vegetation is significantly different, there are similarities and we found great joy in noting those flowers and plants which grow in both places.
But the great delight of the day was….mushrooms!!! Yes, again! Just like in our Denver mountains, the heavy rains in Indy made for ideal mushroom conditions and we found tons! It was a great treasure hunt – winding through vines and crawling under trees to get a closer look. We saw more mushrooms today than I think we’ve ever seen in one place before.
I will need to spend time with a field guide to learn the names of all the beautiful specimens we saw today. They ranged from drab brown to fluorescent orange, from tiny to the size of dinner plates, from perfect to irregular shapes.
It was an ecstatic hike to be sure! We flew about from spot to spot, exclaiming excitedly, and wondering with each new mushroom we found how blessed we were to have been able to see and appreciate these miracles of the forest floor.
Blessings to you,
Sarah
anordinarymiracleday 