Sunshine

Opening my eyes at the sound of a bell. It calls me and slowly shepherds me into alertness. First, it’s painful, then more familiar. Outside the window sounds ablur, slowly taking shape and making sense in my mind. Figures and shadows of the mess in my room, gradually morphing into their whole being. I am awake now, fully. One more blink, and I turn my head to the right, out the window. There she is.

My daily sentinel. Watching me through my daily battle, this warfare we call life. The sun shines. A reminder that we are not alone. Yellow, golden, orange, red. Fire. Warmth. Safety and hell. All mixed up together in this one big flaming ball. So high, so far, so distant, yet so close. The sun controls everything that we do. It gives us life. It takes it away. Without the sun we’d be icicles. -40-degree temperatures would plunge the Earth into another Ice Age. Without the sun, we’d have no oxygen. Plants would cease to exist. Life would cease to exist. The world would become a ball of toxic, noxious gas. The world that gives us life and love and supports all we do – would become our greatest enemy. Without the sun. Only without would exist.

To shine. Sparkling. Bright. Rays. Happy.

How do we go about in our daily lives so miserably, trudging along in our deep trenches, when something so gay and merry shines above us. She shines for us. Our role model. Watching over. Silently, from afar. An example of gleeful joy. Yet, we don’t follow suit. We’ve have become so complacent and so familiar in our darkness. We have adopted the mystery of the night’s moon and forgotten our daily companion. Humans tend to remember the negative more than the positive. Why is that so? Why is darkness an easier step to walk with? Why are doom and gloom what we seek out? But the sun shines for the moon too.

The sunshine. The sun shines. The sun.

Its wisdom. She has seen things from the dawn of time. Throughout millennia. Yet, we turn away from this sage. This all knowing, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, mystical, magical, mother to all.

We have turned away from this happy. We have become disconnected with all the sun has given us. We have failed to water her green plants. We have polluted her beautiful blue oceans with plastic. We have filled her atmosphere with thick, black, smoke. All she wanted was for us to care for this Earth that she so lovingly warmed into existence. To take care of all the lush vegetation that she removed the ice shards from. To take care of the animals that bask her in rays, like open arms, a big, outstretched hug.

Now, the sun burns.

Global burning.

That’s what they’re calling it.

Sodom and Gomorrah. Ungrateful. Unmindful. Selfish. Greed. Ego. 

We have replaced all the good from the sun’s shining. We have replaced it with our version of shiny – money. Gold, cryptocurrency, dollar bills, stock markets, wealth. We’ve turned away from the sun and moved into cold, dank office rooms. We’ve ignored the calls of the ocean and put fish in tiny boxes so they can swim in circles, just like us. We’ve cut down the trees and churned them out into expensive tables, chairs, and reems of paper, never to ever see a literary masterpiece written on them. Crushed. Shredded. In a landfill. We’ve decimated the planet the sun worked so hard to create of millions of years in a heartbeat.

Humans, the quickest destroyers of anything good. Complications, drama, mayhem, destruction. Why is it so hard for us to accept the simple? Why can’t we be basic? What is this constant hunger for more? To be bigger? To be better? To be richer? To be stronger? Why can’t we just be?

The sun. She bes.

Why can’t we?

Mowgli’s loud meow in my ear makes me jump. Another blink.

I say hello to the sun - Let’s see what adventures you have in store for me today – and then turn back to face the cat who’s caterwauling millimeters from my face.

“Come on cat, breakfast time.”