Strengthening Light

The past few days, I've enjoyed the January sunlight. We're more than a month past the winter solstice now, and I can feel my spirits lift as the days get lighter.

Two days ago, Ben and I played in the front yard as the afternoon turned into evening. Wind swirled the dry leaves on the ground and made Ben laugh by blowing his hood off his head. As the sun set, a few clouds high up in the sky shone brightly. Ben was thrilled to see an airplane fly directly over the house, and he followed the blinking lights with his gaze until they vanished over the treetops.

As the evening got darker and colder, Ben turned to me and said, "Sun? Sun?" It took me a minute to realize he was asking what had happened to the sun. I explained to him that it had gone bye-bye, but that it would return tomorrow. As I was putting him to bed that night, he said, "Sun. Come back." "Yes," I reassured him. "The sun will come back."

I can see how religions could be founded on fears that the sun would not come back, fears that darkness would remain. Light and dark are potent metaphors for our emotional and spiritual states. We live in a modern world of limitless artificial sunlight, and still I'm happy to see the sun for longer and longer each day.

Another beautiful photo from curiouskiwi on flickr.com.