Mocking bird

The days are short, dreary, and cold;  and likewise feelings seem to consume my soul. 
Almost as if I am a tree in an orchard being slowly overtaken by weeds and vines.  Each day, each hour, each moment I can feel them covering my branches, shadowing my limbs, blocking out my light.  The nights come upon me too quickly as well,  yet they bring no rest for they to seem just as dark and grim.  There are but memories, like fallen leaves, where once my fruit had hung.  Is this season just beginning or is it soon to pass?  It's hard to focus on the good, with so many thoughts that are so sad. 
What would they think if they were here, those we lost so near and dear?  Would they be so down and out?  Surely we'd be laughing, cutting up, and remembering the good.
My thoughts go back a few years ago to a cold still morning.  I got to work early that day, or my coworker arrived late (probably the latter),  and I can still remember seeing my breath roll past my lips as I sat in my truck waiting. I recall that I had the same sadness overtake me then; thoughts of loved ones come and gone.  Mostly my thoughts hung on to the tragedy that had befallen my cousin Travis a few years before;  but as I sat there overwhelmed, confused, and lost the strangest thing happened....A mocking bird flew up and landed on my driver side mirror.  I paid little attention to him at first,  but as it was he refused to be ignored, refused to let me linger in sadness.  He kept flapping his wing, and chirping, and singing, and hopping back and forth from my window ledge and mirror as if trying desperately to break me from my trance.  As the minutes passed my thoughts began to change to the good memories of a time when we would hunt blackbirds with our bb guns in Pawpaw's back yard.  Back when we were ignorant of the sadness in the world, unstained by the loss of loved ones, blind to the bad, only soaking in the good.  As kids and as cousins we all enjoyed these frequent back yard excursions,  but we knew (instilled in us by our Pawpaw and Mawmaw) never to shoot Mocking birds.  I sat for what seemed like hours watching this little bird dance and sing, and flutter and float, and cry out to me with the same enthusiasm as we had when we were in those moments. 
Still to this day, I can't say that it wasn't my loved ones I saw when I locked eyes with that little bird.  Mocking birds are known for their amazing ability to mimic other birds,  but for some reason I have a hard time believing that this particular bird could mimic so much more or maybe perhaps he was just mocking my sadness.  Either way the memory of that day, of that little bird, will forever be engraved into my mind and will continue to remind me,  in moments of sad reflection and morning,  to not spend to much time lingering on the sad of the loss but rather linger on the good and the joy that was shared while they were here.  Remember the love you shared with them and love your God all the more because of them.

 The Lord is close to the brokenhearted, and he saves those whose spirits have been crushed.    Psalms 34:18

As Paul would say:
Be full of joy in the Lord always. I will say again, be full of joy. Philippians 4:4