According to webmd.com (and they are always right you know, except when they always tell you that you are going to die from a head cold) people in Utah in the US suffer every winter from a bad case of the SADs. Seasonal Affective Disorder comes about when the population lives under grey clouds for the winter months and are in want of a bit of sunshine. Natural sunlight is proven to combat stress, depression, and general 'get out of my f*****g face' disorder. Unlike Utah, Ireland gets about 360 days of cloud and rain a year. So, when the blissful sunshine pours from the sky for the 5 days a year (usually leaving cert week or thereabouts), the whole country and it's residents are temporarily transformed.
Driving to work today at 9AM, it was a gorgeous 16 degrees out with the promise of 25 by lunchtime. The dogs were happier when I was leaving them, the cuckoo was having a good cuckoo in the garden, and the radio DJ was singing his way out of and into each song. Throughout the whole day standing in the shop I witnessed one happy person after another come and go. Whether they were on their way down south to visit relatives, or taking their first day out with a new baby and the mother-in-law, everyone had a smile and said the same thing; 'beautiful day isn't it?'.
Even in the world outside of my little bag shop, things seemed cheerier. I watched pictures put up online of friend's sharing ice creams on the beach and little kids playing in paddling pools in the garden. Kids outside the shop were taking off their velcro shoes with their little pudgy fingers and paddling in the shopping centre's beloved fountain while the security guard turned a blind eye. People were sending in stories to radio stations of how they were pulling sickies with their children and spouses to spend the day in the sun with them. It all just sounded so perfect and ideal, because even if it's only briefly, the whole country's priorities seemed to be aligned.
I didn't understand until this evening that it's not the vitamins in sunshine that makes people happy. It's the idea that comes with the sunshine that we don't have to be dark like the sky. You don't have to run with your head down in the rain, ignoring everyone around you. You can look up and take your time and see the world. people like to think that for those 5 days of sunshine we have a little bit of freedom. It's kinda like a snow day in Orlando. It's full of unexpected things; adventure, joy, laughing out loud, new memories, sunsets, tastes that remind you of a time when you didn't have to pay an ESB bill. We all want those things, and sunshine somehow makes them seem a little more possible.
Enjoy.
Amy.
ps. here is some Passenger. He just sort of fits the mood.
Scare Away The Dark
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