The Last Days of Summer

I woke up this morning and shivered.  I looked out the window and the sun wasn't up yet.  As I dressed in the pale light, I couldn't help but sigh, Summer is almost over.  Technically this is the first day of autumn, but the weather here tends to go back and forth for a few more weeks at least.  Still, I know with this first chilly morning that summer is nearing the end.

On my quiet drive, still before the full light of dawn now, I saw the does with their fawns and their coats have lost that toasty tawny color in favor of their winter grays, and again I shivered.  I'm just not ready to face another winter.

Normally I look forward to this time of year, but it's been an overly dry summer and all the leaves are drying up and falling right now instead of next month.  The ground is littered with them and I crunch through my lawn instead of the whispering lilt of rainy autumn.

Well, at least I have a couple more weeks before it really starts getting chilly.  I plan to spend them getting as much sunshine as possible.  Every year I go in for my annual check-up and the results come back with low Vitamin D.  My doc gave me prescription strength, only-one-per-week-because-they're-so-strong, vitamin D tablets, and after two years of taking them my Vitamin D is still low.

When the supplements fail, it's time to supplement the supplements.  And what's the very best way to load up on Vitamin D?  Get some sunshine.  Vitamin D is one of the few vitamins that your body can make on its own.  All it takes is about 15 minutes of full sun exposure per day to keep your levels charged.

So, every day that I possibly can, I go out and take some soothing instrumental music-either piano or cello, and use that 15 minutes to do a little destressing/meditating while I load up on sunshine.

While the sunshine is helping my body, the meditation is helping my mood and emotions.  We all have so much going on in our lives that just taking a little break to relax, focus on breathing, maybe pray for a bit, can make a big difference in our emotional state and mental clarity.

The sunshine won't last much longer, but maybe this time spent getting away from it all is something I'll take with me into the autumn and winter.

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