Sunshine

Happy 2008, friends! I hope the new year is treating you well so far! Sorry for the long silence at Brandy Hall. November and December were a blur of rehearsals, concerts, and holiday festivities. I hope you and yours enjoyed the season!

A favorite novel of mine, Sunshine, by Robin McKinley, tells the amusing story of a woman who depends on the sun for her happiness, her energy, her very life. I thought of this fictional sun-worshipper this morning because today I awoke to sunshine. From the moment I noticed that it was not a cloudy day, I was eager to get up (very unusual for me, especially on a Saturday) and go out into the morning air. Why? Because east central IL is a very gray place this time of year. Robin McKinley's Sunshine would not enjoy living at Brandy Hall in January. The clouds hang high, the clouds hang low, often they rain, somtimes they snow (hey, I made a rhyme!), but it's always gray. And it has seemed particularly so the last couple of weeks as the warm, brightly-lit revelry of the holidays has faded away into memory, and cold, busy, GRAY January living has become the norm.

But today was different. Today was sunny, and quite mild for this time of year. So I took a long walk in the park and soaked up as much sunlight as I could. When I got back home, I wasn't quite ready to stop my sun-soaking, so I sat in the sun for another 15 minutes. It felt so good! And my soul felt lighter somehow, more optimistic, as a result of those warm rays. The days-on-end gray skies make it hard to keep one's spirits up. The damp cold seeps into your bones, and the world seems colorless and depressing. It's hard to take day after day of no sun. But today, I had my respite. The sun restored my faith that the January doldrums will not last forever. Thank you, sun, for your warmth and your cheerfulness. I needed them both!

Words of the Sun
by Ai Qing (translated by Zhou Long)

Open your windows,
open your doors,
Ah, let me come into your little rooms.

I come with a ray of golden flowers,
I come with fragrance from the grove.
I come with light and warmth,
I come with dew all over.

Get up, get up!
Raise your head quickly from the pillow,
Open your eyes hidden by your eyelash,
To let your eyes see I am coming.

Let your hearts be like little wooden houses
To open the windows closed for so long.

Let me bring you flowers and fragrance.
Let me bring you light, warmth, and dew,
To sprinkle all space of your hearts.

(To hear a gorgeous musical setting of this poem, check out Chanticleer's 1999 album "Colors of Love." The setting is composed by Chinese-American composer Zhou Long.)