Bring Me Sunshine

[wickedace]

I woke up this morning to brilliant sunshine, blue skies, and a quietly cheerful feeling of contentment and optimism. Sunny, cloudless days are like cheat codes for my mood - I find it so much easier to smile when the sky is bright and the world outside full of colour. Blue skies, yellow bricks, green leaves. (I remember one spring being surprised by the bright green of the trees around me, like I'd forgotten that nature could make that colour, during the grey of winter.)

I ate breakfast at our dining table today, looking out of our wall of windows at the brilliance outside and smiling, feeling unexpectedly upbeat for my first morning back at work after an exhausting (in a good way) holiday. It's the sunshine that does it, for sure. I look at the light, and I remember previous sunny days and the feelings that went with them. Summer term at uni, all yellow stone walls and cycling in the sunshine, picnics in the park and lazing in pub gardens. Moving to this city, catching the sunshine that poured through the bedroom window in our first flat, leaning out the other windows to look at the immaculate shared garden downstairs. Moving to this flat, almost exactly a year ago, and relishing the joy of having an actual balcony, planting garlic and watching it creep up through the soil.

I like sunshine, it's clear, which is a disappointment to my tiny emo soul. I have friends from the North, who prefer curling up in layers of blankets and hiding from grey and rainy skies ("it's easier to layer up than cool down!"), but I cannot stand the cold (unless it is proper cold, with snow, and I am skiing in it), and when the sun comes out I almost can't help but smile. Bring me summer nights, pleasantly warm, and clear enough to pick out the few stars that make it past the city lights. Bring me lazy summer weekends, cold cans of Coke and sizzling barbecues. Bring me walking home from work in the daylight, through the splash of green that is the little park between office and station, and the smell of the plants that strive there. Bring me pub gardens and picnics, and the friends to share them with.

Bring me sunshine.

Comments

[totchipanda]

This post made me smile. I live in a place where the dead of winter is only 7.5 hours of daylight and I craaaaave being in the sun. Not too hot, mind, like 73F, and low humidity. But I have friends who moved here specifically because, despite our days of -40, we have a very high number of sunny days through the winter, which makes the long darkness and bitter cold easier to bear. I do prefer being on the cooler side, probably thanks to 6 months of winter, because it's easier to layer up and I love the weight of clothing and blankets, but I am soooooo ready for it to be over. Bring on spring!!