Sunshine

This time of the year, in southwestern Indiana, most days are grey and dreary and gloomy. Our mood usually reflects that dreariness in that we feel tired and maybe irritable or grumpy at times. It’s been bleak way for days, and we feel as if springtime is never going to make an appearance. Fear not, folks, we’re getting closer every day, every minute.

Think back to the official first day of winter, way back in December, when we enjoyed nine hours and twenty-one minutes of sunshine. Today we enjoyed (clouds notwithstanding!) ten hours and 14 minutes of natural Vitamin D from the sky. We are gaining about three minutes each and every day. We’re making major progress.

Besides the obvious need for the sun – heating our world, enabling plants to grow – there are the physical and psychological effects on us mere mortals. Exposure to sunlight is thought to increase the brain’s release of a hormone called serotonin. Serotonin is associated with boosting mood and helping a person feel calm and focused. The vitamin D made thanks to the sun plays a big role in bone health. Getting anywhere from 5-15 minutes of sun exposure to your arms, hands, and face, two to three times a week, is enough to enjoy the Vitamin D-boosting benefits of the sun. Be careful, though, as too much sun can cause many problems too, but today I’m just talking about the positive aspects of sunshine.

I find that there are other types of sunshine that brighten and improve our world. When you say somebody is your sunshine, what you are really saying is the person makes you feel warm, or brings light to your life, and puts you in a better mood. Yellow – the color of the sun – is warm and bright and vibrant and will cheer you up. An errant dandelion growing through the crack in a sidewalk or in a corner of your yard – sunshine.

Sunshine evokes memories. Think back – summer sunshine, sunshine reflecting off snow, sunshine and rainbows and springtime showers, being outdoors with family and friends, camping, swimming, picnicking. These memories bring back the sunshine and warmth of those wonderful adventures. Simply standing outside when the sun is bright and letting its warmth seep into your bones – what a joy.

And music, of course, brings me sunshine! Think of all the songs that include sunshine in lyrics: the Beatles “Good Day, Sunshine” and “Here Comes the Sun”; “Walking on Sunshine” by Katrina and the Waves; Sheryl Crow “Soak Up the Sun”; and of course “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine…”. These are just a few of the songs bringing the warmth and light of the sun into your life on a cloudy, gloomy day.

I’m a huge John Denver fan (I know, I’m from that generation), and the words of his song, Sunshine, seem especially appropriate on the days when a sighting of the sun is rare, or when your day isn’t going how you expected, or when you are having a magnificent day.

“Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy

Sunshine in my eyes can make me cry

Sunshine on the water looks so lovely

Sunshine almost always makes me high.”

Even on the cloudy days – weather-wise or emotionally – we know that the sun is always out there, waiting to make an appearance, to cheer us up, to warm our lives and our soul, to remind us that better days are on the way. Let the sunshine – real and imagined – be a steady force in your life. We need sunshine in oh, so many ways. Isn’t that all that matters?