Light is on the way

I was surprised at how friendly, laid back and fun is everyone here. I met some great guys and gals and even strangers are polite in a very sincere way. I’ve seen more than my share of fake smiles and meeting people who are so genuinely friendly and nice was a bit unusual at first. People affect me so much that over the months I gradually changed from being guarded, cold and reserved to being more cheerful and friendly myself. I’ll miss a lot of folks here when I eventually go back  home.

The days have been getting shorter since late June, or so I hear.  In the past two weeks, I’ve noticed that we also haven’t gotten any sunlight at all (Today was an exception - a bright sunny day).  I don’t know whether this is typical for the few weeks right around the winter solstice or if we have just happened to have had really bad weather. In a few more days, this trend will reverse and the days will get longer.  A fact that escapes many people in the modern age is that the shortest day of the year in Ireland takes place on December 21. I suppose that this is because of the proximity of Christmas. With so much emphasis on lighting up the place for Christmas and in plenty of time the absence of daylight is not noticed as it once used to be.

As the shortest day of the year was approaching, more and more multi-coloured lights and bright, festive decorations are splashed across houses and yards everywhere. Long ago, in more earthy times, people celebrated the solstice because it was the rebirth of the sun, when days began to lengthen and light began to return. As our ancient ancestors probably realized, their celebrations helped to keep spirits up when times were dark and cold, just as our modern holiday light displays function as a way to ward off the winter blues.

This event, known as the winter solstice, is much more pronounced the farther north you go in the world.  After you cross the Arctic Circle, you get a period known as polar night, where the sun doesn’t come up for several days to several months depending upon how far north you go.  Even as latitudes approach the Arctic Circle, however, days get dramatically shorter.

Please do note that the most powerful political and economic centres in the most powerful nations in the world all fall within a winter sunlight deficiency zone. Either way, the lack of sunlight and minimal daylight is pretty terrible.  I have heard the opposite version of this during the summer is amazing though.

Do the sunless, gray days of winter make you feel depressed, rundown, or lethargic? Around this time of the year, thousands of people find that they suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD. SAD is a type of depression caused by a lack of sunlight.

Our perception of the world around us depends greatly on the information we receive about it. It also may depend more than we realize on our health, specifically our vitamin D availability in colder months. There is no way to couch this in cutesy, comfy language.

The way you see the world around you reflects the state of your mind. Your world view is how you are. The same world that some people see as dangerous, cutthroat, self-serving and frightening is seen by other people as compassionate, helpful, kind and generally moving forward in a way that is positive for the human species.

Health itself can play a huge role in a person's view of the world and in how they perceive and relate to members of their family and the people at work. People who live north of a line running roughly through the middle of the temperate zones then toward the poles from there may easily suffer from depression due to SAD.

Some one who is close to you might be suffering from SAD. Vitamin D supplements can help. It won't hurt you and me to take action to make our own lives and those of our loved ones better during the colder months of the year.