It's a gray gray world, Charlie Brown.
The above photo depicts today. Gray. Clouds. No illumination. No shadows. No sunlight.
Last winter I wrote a blog post called “I shot six holes in my freezer” referring to Jimmy Buffet’s song “Boat Drinks”. It actually alluded to a condition called Seasonal Affective Disorder which affects many sun-deprived souls here in the Northern Hemisphere. The song suggests we might want to head to the tropics for a vacation. (Although, usually, it takes until March before people get “cabin fever” really bad around here.)
Sunlight, as we dark-day-dwellers soon realize, is good for the soul.
And the two shall become one...in the sun
The above photo depicts this weekend. Yay!! We enjoyed sunlight. Suddenly the skies beamed bright blue for one of the few times this month. You could see people smiling. Gloomy eyes disappeared; bright eyes reappeared.
You can feel kind of…gray…and never realize that the lack of sun is having an affect. Until the sun returns to shine upon the snowy earth and your mood suddenly lightens and your step quickens and you’re inexplicably happy once again.
Sunlight illuminates even roof ice
Last winter I wrote an artistic piece of writing about a person suffering from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). Even though I’ve only had passing challenges with lack of sunlight, people seemed amazed at the way the words revealed the pain and suffering experienced by people in the midst of deep seasonal depression. People kept saying, “But you must have experienced depression to write this way.”
Not really. But I can imagine and feel the depression which sinks into dim recesses of our human soul, penetrating so deeply that one feels no way out into sunlight…
Prickly burdock
Some people (including my dad–HI, DAD!) swear by Vitamin D3. He suggests we all take supplements, especially those of us in sunlight-starved climates. Barry takes his pill every day. I…ahem…swallow one when I remember.
Last winter, spending so much time outdoors, I felt very little Seasonal Affective Disorder. Perhaps the time tramping in the woods, creatively looking for new photos and interesting sights, balanced the lack of sunlight. Perhaps spending time outdoors is the remedy, whether than sun shines forth or not.
Homemade chokecherry wine in sunlight
Then again, Barry brought home a bottle of homemade chokecherry wine the other night. If we have too many days of gray, we may just have to break open that bottle from Rene’s Kitchen.
I’ll just try not to write a blog after THAT evening. 
In the meantime, the minute you see that sun: GET OUTSIDE! Doctor’s orders.
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