Sunshine

When the sun shines on the Eastside of Seattle the world sparkles in newness and glory. You can see the golfer's white shoes from a mile and a half. The shadows become sharp enough to cut your fingers on. The folds of the lawn roll down with a halo glow. Rainier smiles as a silent sage crowned in wisdom, playing the role of foundation, the role of permanence, like a pillar holding up the sky.

It’s a hooky-playing day, a day when the real work of the day ought to be kite-flying or a game of Frisbee golf created on the go (“that mailbox looks like a par 4”). I have an urge to grab my kids and roll around in the park with them, like so many dogs. We opted instead for the Dog Park, taking our mutt out for a romp with hundreds of other, unleashed joy-hounds. The naked trees all stand excited, wishing that the bath of sunlight means that springtime really is coming, and wondering if it’s time to start unfurling their inner beauty. TS Eliot said that April is the cruelest month, because of the illusion of hope as the world wraps itself in newness, but when you get a golden day in January, there is nothing cruel at all about it…hope is no illusion, rather an obvious dream, a known and fleeting angel, a memory of warmth even at full noon. There is no expectation for greatness as the day dawns, only an understanding that greatness is upon you. Light has such power over the souls of men: poetry dark and brooding comes from the cloud, introspection is exalted in the rain, but in the sunshine, the vision is cleared, and the life song lingers with a sweet reverb, humming all the way back to the office after being blinded with a lunch hour. So how broken am I that I hope for just a little cloud on Sunday, so a few of my seattle-sun-freak-brotherhood will join me in church?

Lord, as I proceed, would you shine your grace upon me, so that I might live the light you call me to be, to reflect, to embrace. Allow me to shine like your stars, amidst the midnight black that exists all around me, and within me as well…Wrap me in the arms of your light like a surprise January day. Make me golden as well. And let your sun shine…