As the days get longer and we are about to “spring ahead” into daylight savings time, it makes me think about just how much my moods and sense of well being are affected by sunlight.
When I first started brainstorming names for this blog (about 6 months ago), the name “Sun in My Face” resonated with me. I was inspired by the sunrise photo that is the main photo on this website. Sunrises just always feel so hopeful and positive to me. They are the first sign that a new day “with no mistakes in it yet” (thank you, L.M. Montgomery) is beginning. There is a stillness and a sacredness in both sunrises and sunsets that speak directly to my soul. I’m sure I will write much more about both sunrises and sunsets in future posts on here.
I’ve tried different ways to deal with the darkness of winter, with mixed results. I used a light box for a while, but the intensity of the light gave me a headache. I have become a big fan of twinkle lights, draping them over window frames and in a small tree in my back yard. They are so cheerful to come home to when I leave for work in the dark and return in the dark.
When I was on Facebook I liked to collect and post photos of things that were beautiful, or made me smile or laugh. One of these little collections I called “A Daily Dose of Beauty.” These were photos taken of the beauty of nature (most not taken by me) in all of its forms. Landscapes, animals, flowers, the ocean – the only common thread was natural beauty. I’d find the photos on Pinterest and post them to my page, one a day. It made me happy to look at the photos myself and to share them with my friends. It felt like I was helping to make Facebook a more positive place.
Another album of photos I collected, back in the winter of 2013/14, I called “Here Comes the Sun.” As you might imagine, all of the photos featured the beauty of the sun. In the darkness of the shortest days of the year, the photos reminded me that the sun was, little by little, returning to us. The golden light in the photos felt almost real enough to bask in and helped me cope with the long, dark winter.
If you’ve been following this blog from the start (last week – ha!) you probably can guess what comes next. I was diagnosed with cancer at the end of that January. Boy, did the winter feel dark and bleak at that point. But something wonderful happened next. My neighbors Chris and Jenny, inspired by my “Here Comes the Sun” Facebook photos, had about about a hundred or so yellow rubber bracelets made up – the kind you wear to support a cause – with the words “Here Comes the Sun” stamped into the rubber. They gave me a big box of these bracelets and I gave them out to friends, family, coworkers – anyone I could think of. I asked people to take a photo of themselves wearing the bracelet and post the photo on Facebook.
The response was tremendous and humbling. If you think basking in the sun feels great, try basking in the love and support of all of your friends and family. It’s a feeling you’ll never forget.
