Living in the Pacific Northwest has made me more aware of the relationship between weather and mood. It has also taught me the importance of Gortex and waterproof shoes! The darker and wetter days of fall, winter, and early spring bring on a kind of hibernation. People still get out and do things - if the sun behind a few clouds and wet weather were allowed to stop us, there would be little activity between October and June! However, folks are less social when the clouds blanket the sky. You get invited to fewer potlucks, there aren't as many neighborhood get-togethers. Instead you see smoke coming from everyone's chimney as we all go home to get warm and dry. It all makes me hungry for homemade soup, a good book, a blanket and the sofa! But the flip side is how WONDERFUL it is when the sun comes out. Yesterday I noticed my Texas friends talking about how cold it was there - how everyone was hunkered down at home. For fun I compared the temps. It was, within 4 degrees, the same temperature here - but here it was a "NICE" day. Why? Not because it was any warmer, but because the sky was blue and the sun was shining brightly (something I know I took for granted in the Lone Star state). Folks still had on rain jackets, or carried a precautionary umbrella and the ever present warm cup of coffee . . .but they were out and about, making eye contact with one another rather than hurrying through the rain.
So, today, with the return of the gray wet weather - I want to stop and say that I for one am grateful for sunshine!
** BTW - the graphic at the top is from a fun blog called "Indexed" where many facets of life are boiled down to a vin diagram or graph. You can check it out here.
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