Until yesterday, we hadn’t had any direct sunlight in our apartment for months. Given that we have windows that face all four sides of our building, that’s pretty impressive. What surprises me is that I hadn’t noticed that the sunlight was gone until it came back — I think I had attributed the darkness to the cloudy, overcast and rainy days we’ve had lately. But it was more than that — the angle of the sun had actually dipped so low that the sun didn’t crest the side of the building on our south-facing side until it had passed beyond the point that it could shine in our windows. And the afternoon sun, which in the summer overwhelmed, overheated and dazzled us, can’t make it in to our west facing windows because the angle has changed so much that it’s completely obscured by a neighboring building.
Yesterday morning, I was playing cars with Liam on the floor and I was being persistently blinded, and slightly irritated by, all the light that was streaming into our south facing window in our living room. After a few minutes of repositioning ourselves around the living room, the sunlight went away — hidden again behind the wall across our courtyard. Only then, after it was gone, did I realize that all that brightness would be back with us to stay, every morning, from now until November.
I like the winter, with the cold, the wind and especially the snow. But I’m glad to have the sun back. I didn’t realize how much I had missed it. I can’t help having my spirits lifted by its return, and with it, the promise of longer, brighter days soon to come.