Sideways

I started out as a nature poet, and one thing I like to do in January is make fun of the sun. Because, as the source of all life on this planet, it’s sideways. The beams are so angled that noon seems like twilight. At no hour does the sun actually make it all the way up in the sky. Those of us whose nature it is to equate short days with dullness of heart can barely keep it together through a cloudy week in January.  We’ve been suffering since nearly Halloween.

After the solstice low point on Dec. 21, sunset should have begun its retreat, one might posit, but clearly there was no hurry. We didn’t gain a lousy daylight minute until Dec. 26!

My decades of working were office-bound. There was always that Monday after daylight savings had evaporated when I left my windowless cube and encountered the lobby’s black glass walls. My car and the entire parking lot had disappeared into the void.

Now as a full-time writer, in a house with glorious windows, I often pull myself out of bed at dawn to tinker with words and to watch the sun climb, even when it’s not going to get too far. Born into the 20^th century, I’m one of the lucky ones: a woman who did not die in childbirth, who did not have six kids and die of exhaustion or disease at forty. Here I am in my 70’s, with a book out. I close my eyes and face the sun.

#gratitude #nature #January