I’ve often joked that in my
next life I want to be a cat, so I can spend my day chasing sunbeams to nap in.
I love the sun, but not in a skin cancer, leather –skin sort of way. I love the
warmth of the sun, I love the glow of it. More than anything I love how on
sunny days I smile more. I associate the sun with happiness and warmth. Winter
in Wisconsin hasn’t been long, it’s just been dragging on. It’s only snowed
regularly since January, but today it got cold again, there was a windchill of
near zero when I woke up this morning, but it was sunny! When it’s this cold
the clouds are frozen away leaving a bright, crisp, bright blue sky above.
Tricking me into believing it’s warm outside and leaving me longing for a sunbeam
to lie in.
The past few weeks, months
even, I have been joking, but not really, just without a diagnosis that I am
suffering from sun deprivation disorder; which technically is called seasonal affective
disorder. There is no doubt in my
mind that the professionals naming this illness started with the acronym and
went from there. Along with this has been a desire to move. Not to Florida
(ick! Never!), or back to Alabama or even another warm and sunny destination.
No, just to a single-family house that has windows that natural light floods in
through.
See, I live in a twindo. Not
a condo, not a duplex, a twindo. I have an “other half” that is not my husband.
Everything is separate, except we share a foundation wall that is separated
with a one foot air space. The thing is my “other half” has the west facing
wall and my east facing side has a view of the bluff, causing the sun not to
come shining over until around 9:00 am. If you read a recent post about my
house you’ll know that I do not love the layout of my house, but its’ location,
and it does offer space and everything we need; not want, but need. But, I have
to admit that the moving bug has bit because of the lack of sunlight spilling
in through the windows this winter. Right now it’s 2:00 pm and I have no lights
on in my house, my house is bright, but there are only two small sunbeams
streaming in, so small and ineffective, that even my cat has chosen the comfort
of the couch.
I made a promise to myself
today. As soon as it is warm enough outside, at this point 40 degrees will do,
I am going outside, tilting my head up to the sky and basking in the sun.
Besides, I’m not entirely convinced that reincarnation exists, so why wait.
I know that I am affected by the lack of sunlight and believe that is one of the best benefits in my new life of living in an RV and traveling in a climate that is always sunny and warm. I would seriously look into getting sola-tubes installed. Our previous stick house had a wooded hillside behind it and was very dark and depressing. Adding the tubes (4 of them) brightened things up considerably and made a big difference. The unexpected side perk was that due to the geometric construction of the light filter it splashed little rainbows on the walls when the sun came through. It's really hard to feel blue when you both sunlight and rainbows inside the house.
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