There is such a thing as the quality of sunlight. We casually write, “It was a sunny day” as if everybody knows precisely what we mean. But have you ever really looked at the day? —
—at the cold sun rising up over a dew-speckled lawn
—into the sweaty-fisted nudge of a scalding desert afternoon
—across the rippled water at the autumn-colored sunset sky
—deep into the blink of a green flash
—down at the mottled pattern of shadow and light under a tree
—through the highest boughs of a fir tree lit like Christmas
—in between the red-tinged temples in a foreign land
—obscure, clear white, moonlike in the winter’s haze
—tempered by a breeze, shining yellow like a clichéd child’s drawing
The sunlight spills and gushes, dots and dashes, is hidden or blares. In each country, on each continent, the quality of sunlight changes, too. Seasons beckon a new form of sunlight, or none at all.
And in its wake creates ecstasy or despair, fear and frenzy, calm, awe, joy … in the small humans who tend to forget the glorious, life-giving and life-sustaining power of the daytime orb.
It seems like we ought to practice giving voice to the multitudes of expressions that “sunlight” conveys. It seems like we ought to practice, first, seeing and feeling the nuanced qualities that depend upon geography, time, pollution or pristineness, awareness …
I notice today that the midsummer sun washes the sky milky soft blue; turns the tops of leaves fluorescent yellow, their bottoms blacky green; makes dark silhouettes of birds. The day dawned faintly pink but has blossomed into a burnt metallic blue.white.yellow; yes, I am weaker than the sun who just shut my silly eyes that attempted a peek at the right-now of late afternoon blaze. I surrender to the sun. Not in defeat, but in supplication, in homage, in gratitude. Let us remember her evershifting presence …
(Orig. posted in 2018)
All blog images created & photographed by Jennifer J. Wilhoit unless otherwise noted. Please circulate images with photo credit: "©2019 JenniferJWilhoit/TEALarbor stories. AllRightsReserved."
