Sunshine and cloud and rain collided. Streaks of rain slashed dark, diagonally across the sky, while rays of sunlight slashed light in the opposite direction creating an improbable zig zag pattern in the sky. In the distance a cloud could no longer contain it's moisture and burst in to rain, as if it was spilling it's guts onto the mountain side. The mountain's last remnants of snow formed white rivers, joining and separating down the side. On smaller mountains what looked like patches of faint light here and there were actually the buds of birch trees, so light, fresh and green against the dark gloom that they looked illuminated. Everywhere, the dark green forests were highlighted with sprays of light green.

In the sunshine, incongruous drops of shining bright rain spattered down on my windscreen while a Coldplay song serenaded me gently from the stereo. I thought about the laundry hanging on my clothes line at home and inexplicably I felt a smile on my face. I thought about stopping and taking a photo, but a photo is only ever part of something and I knew the value in this was the experience as a whole. I felt a peace and a lightness, in my joy my troubles and worries melted away.

These moments come when you least expect it. There's that instant when you realise everything is as it should, that life is fundamentally good. You know the moment is fleeting, you'll get a phone call, remember a bill you need to pay or unload your groceries, the storm will pass and you will return to your normal life. The trick is to drink it all in while you can and hopefully remember the truth you know right now, this second, that everything is okay.