Now if you're like me and you have pale, northern-European, so-white-it-blinds-the-eyes skin, you may not be a huge fan of the sun in general. You can get sunburned in ten minutes. You have higher chances of skin cancer. You may already (like me) have a history of skin cancer and have to get skin exams every year. Your dermatologist would murder you if he knew how negligent you were about putting on sunscreen, which you're supposed to do every time you step outside, not just when you're going to be in the direct sunlight for an extended amount of time. You can get sun damage just going to get your mail.
You could also be like me and absolutely love the sun. You wish you didn't have to put on sunscreen because it's such a pain in the butt, but sunbathing and turning into a lobster is even more a pain in the butt. Or the shoulders, or nose, or forehead, or feet. Yes, I have gotten sunburn on my feet before. Ouch. You feel like a cat sometimes because you've been known to follow a patch of sun around the house and just lie in it. You want to turn your face up to the sun and soak it in like a sunflower. I read Robin McKinley's Sunshine with great jealousy, as the heroine draws her magical power from the sun and can drink it up like a plant.
You also may be wondering what in the world this has to do with writing or books or anything at all.
Unless you read or write outside (Which, by the way, is delightful. Wheelbarrows make exceptionally good cubbies. So do hammocks.), the author-species doesn't get out much. Especially during the winter months.
We need to.
It is a scientifically proven fact that humans need sunlight. It provides vitamin D, which helps against depression and moodiness and general gloom. Fluorescent lights have been known to facilitate depressed emotions. And just being outside, even if you can't see the sun-- like with all the rainy weather we've had these past weeks-- is a balm and a restorative.
In the past month I have recently finished my latest book. This meant a lot of lunch-break writing sessions. I haven't gone outside to eat my lunch because of these as well as the fact that it's winter now, which means cold weather and more rain. So I've stayed indoors. I also, now having exited the collegiate world, haven't been walking between classes and all across campus as I have been used to doing for the past four years. Soaking up even an hour or two of sun just by being a pedestrian.
It also gets dark by the time I leave work, with the time change, so I get up and go to work in the dawn light, and I go home in the twilight, leaving no time for sunlight at all.
I have been feeling gloomy and melancholy and frankly morbid for the last two weeks without knowing why.
I spent my lunch break outside a bit, yesterday, just thinking, praying, musing, and turning my face up to the sun. I felt like I had been plugged in to an electrical circuit.
We need the sunlight. Especially because we're writers. We divulge so much of our creative energy onto the pages, but if we give ourselves no way or rebooting, we're going to be running on empty way faster than we would otherwise.
And even just a few minutes a day, just an hour, can make a huge difference between none at all.
Go outside. Breathe the fresh air. Feel some sunlight. And put on your sunscreen. But get your vitamins for the day and recharge a little.
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