A Place In The Sun For Me

Thanksgiving is over and I have been refreshed with some much needed rest and relaxation from the trials and tribulations of my job.

 

It has turned cold around here after more than a week of above normal temperatures for this time of year. Even Thanksgiving saw temperatures around the seventy degree mark. So this cold has snap has been a sudden reminder that we are on the threshold of winter. 

 

Cheapskate that I am I keep my thermostat set low during the winter, opening my blinds to let in the warming and spirit-lifting rays of Mr. Sun. That warms the place quite well on normal cold days. On the exceptionally cold ones I up the thermostat a little. Always I wear sweats around the house, and if I recline on the couch for an occasional spell of television viewing (which doesn't happen very often ), I grab a blanket to snuggle up under.

 

My work desk - where I spend the majority of my waking time at home - is at my front window, which faces west. During the fall and winter months I can sit here in the evenings and watch the news on my nearby television set and simultaneously watch the setting of the sun. In the spring and summer months, because I go to bed so early on work days, I can only watch sunsets on the weekends. 

 

Yesterday I grabbed a recently purchased book I had been struggling to finish (and still am, doing most of my reading on it before bed) and just sat in the rays of the sun as they burst through my window. For a couple of hours or so I was in heaven as the rays warmed me and soothed my spirits. I can fully understand how so many ancient cultures worshipped the sun as a deity.

 

Always when I take in a sunset there is just a tad of sadness as I realize another day is drawing to close. Often the words from Taps dance through my brain at that time. Yes, Taps does have words:

 

Day is done, gone the sun
From the lakes, from the hills, from the sky
All is well, safely rest
God is nigh.

 

There are more, but those are the words I learned in grammar school and which have stayed with me through the years.

 

This sadness of which I write is always put into the hopeful perspective of there being more opportunities with the coming sunrise of a new day. Even now as I'm writing this post the sun has only recently shown it's awe-inspiring face. I took an early walk this morning at the very first rays of sunrise, welcoming the sun's return and promise of a new day. Tomorrow I return to reality and the stresses of daily life in the rat race. But today I plan for one more afternoon basking in the sun's rays as they catch me here at my desk, allowing my mind to wonder to places far past and others (hopefully) yet future.

 

The days are still growing shorter and will continue to do so for nearly another month.  My internal clock senses this. Not so patiently do I await for the winter solstice and the sun's start at regaining the upper hand over the forces of darkness. Night has its charms and I have some tender feelings about that, too. But I have always just been more in tune with the sun than the moon, being mostly acquainted with the latter's early dusk phase and waning at the predawn. I sleep as the sun does (from my perspective, that is). The weekends and holidays are mainly the time I have to explore the night.

 

So sunworshipper I am and will be on this chilly autumn day. My spirits are high, my soul is at peace, and I am wholly at rest and content in my place in the sun.