Driving to work, I turned the corner onto our property’s main street and reached for the sun visor. The sun always blinds me in this spot. This morning was different. Pulling over I pondered whether the sun realized it would have a minute less to shine tomorrow and the next day and the next. The clouds seemed to laugh at me as I realized that the sun still shines behind the clouds. The sun will be shining all day tomorrow. Only my visibility will be shortened not the sun. What I can see, or tell myself I can see will be shortened, the reality is much different.
Don’t get me wrong. In just a month or so it will be dark both when I go to work and when I come home. That is reality. Just ask my body and it will tell you the seasons ahead are far fewer than those behind. The work I do comes with no guarantee it will be there tomorrow. Our visibility, our ability our sustainability is not infinite or immeasurable like the sun’s. But these are realities we cannot control. They are the clouds that block the sun. They are the rotation of the earth that shortens our days.
Sitting on the side of the road watching the sun in the east, thinking of the sun in the west, I took in a deep breath and exhaled. It is a day when I would much rather be in my car driving off into the sun or on a plane. I reached for my work phone as it rang alerting me of an email from a not very happy executive. Closing the email, I turned the phone around in my hand and took a picture of the sun hidden behind the clouds but visible. “So There!” I chuckled. The sun must have approved and with a breath twirled the clouds and offered me a splash of blue.
