The days are getting shorter and shorter here, as they are all over the northern hemisphere. However, we are farther north than we normally are and we are experiencing a mild form of PTSD with the daily gathering darkness. It is nye on 8am as I write and it is still pitch dark. I never realized just how connected to the light my body is. I literally crave the sunshine and light. (oh, reminder to self, take some vitamin D) We are sluggish to start the day and want to curl up in a nappy rug and 3:30 when the sun starts to leave again. We truly are wired for light and sunshine. I guess everyone here is used to this but this is the one thing we are just not getting used to. We start our day desperately planning all of the outdoor activities that would especially require light and then feel the hours of light slipping away like sand in an hour glass with a really fat stem. Not only that but the sun never gets very high in the sky. It took me a couple of weeks to finally realize and admit it just was NOT going to get higher int he sky. Each day I would think of another reason or explanation why it wasn’t light today: rain, cloud, cold etc. I was in in complete denial of the amount of sunshine that was ever going to be present.
Chatsworth glowing in the brief sunshine.
Because of this we are continuously on “blue sky” watch or sunshine awareness alert. When we visited the magnificent estate at Chatsworth last week we dropped everything, leapt in the car and drove to the high point to take photos of the house in the minute and a half of sunshine. Don’t get me wrong, I also love dreary, cloudy, cosy days, or so I thought, when they were few and far between. I just realized that in California, sunshine is the norm and we treasure our rainy, cloudy days as festive occasions and excuses to curl up on the sofa with a good book and a mug of hot chocolate. A steady diet of the rainy, cloudy, cold days is not quite as festive. It is more like purgatory. Now I know why my cousins in Indiana are such sun worshippers and literally count the days until it is time to open up the swimming pool for the season.
Why do we seem to have an automated light seeking sense in our cells? Is it because light is our natural habitat? Is darkness all really about noticing the light? I have never been SO AWARE of the light than during this time of ever expanding darkness. IS that the reason for our ego shadow? Our what some call our “sinful” natures? Our depression? Do these things, thoughts and times of darkness just activate our light seeking, needing, being nature? I truly didn’t know just how much I loved the light and the sun and the bright, true, illuminating nature of LIGHT.
Light is joy. Joy is light. Love is light and joy.
The voice of God and Love that is within me is light too.
