Be my own sunshine

It is February in Northwestern Pennsylvania.  If you live in this part of the country you have a pretty clear mental picture from that sentence – Grey. Cold. Gloomy skies.  By February it has been this way for months and it has gotten OLD!!!! 

I realized years ago that I run on solar energy.  I am happier, smile more, have more patience, and a million other good things before I am even conscious that the sun is shining.  I find myself laughing at things that would drive me crazy others days and THEN step outside or look out the window and see blue skies and sun.  My body somehow registers the sun before my brain lets me know it is there.

The problem is – I still live in Northwestern Pennsylvania. And it is still February.  If I wait for the sun to shine before I feel brighter that could be months down the road. Thinking in terms of "months" is worst case scenerio, but it is, sadly, a possibility!)

So these are the options I have:

1.       Continue to feel yucky thanks to my internal solar energy being at really low levels. I bet you can guess that is really not what I am hoping for.

2.        Go tanning.  I miss the days when I could do this while ignoring the fact that it is so bad for me.  It does work – that awesome glow of unhealthy, skin damaging rays from a bed of fake sunshine.  Aahhhh.  Reality check.  It is bad. So I am going to stick with that not being an option as I would like to see my children grow up.

3.       Move to Arizona. The sun hangs out year round there.  Not a bad plan, except that all of my family lives here and they are too awesome to be replaced by year-round sunshine.

4.       Find some internal sunshine.  And do my best to soak it in and spread it around. 

And there it is.  That is my goal.  Notice the sunshiney things around me that brighten my life.  Look for the good things that the grey skies can’t take away.  Be my own sunshine.  (okay, that was super-cheesey.) And recognize the sunshine in the people around me.  Search for it shining in other places. And do my best to be sunshine for other people.