“Mommy… Mommy…. Mommy!“
The sound of my daughter’s sweet little Saturday-morning voice is gently rousing me from my slumber, and although she’s speaking quietly, I can tell Zoey is excited.
My eyes finally flutter open enough to look at her. Zoey is kneeling on my bed, looking as if she’s ready to pounce, and her hands are clasped together almost as if in prayer. She notices I’m finally awake and smiles.
“Guess what?” she giggles.
I can’t help but laugh, too. Her early-morning enthusiasm is contagious.
“What’s up, buttercup?” I ask.
Zoey spreads her arms and pauses dramatically before she speaks: “It’s SUMMER!”
Although the calendar doesn’t mark the start of summer for another 18 days, Zoey’s last day of school was the day before, so… details schmetails: to her, summer really is officially here.
“Yay!” I say, pulling her into a hug. I start singing the chorus to as Zoey snuggles in closer.
“What are you looking forward to the most about this summer?” I ask.
Zoey considers this before finally answering. “The pool.”
I nod in agreement. “That’s a good one.”
“Oh,” Zoey says, obviously not satisfied with only giving one answer. “And the sunshine. Summer has the best sunshine.”
Again, I can’t help but agree.
* * *
Zoey has every reason to be excited. Her summer weekends will be spent at the pool, she’s scheduled for a week-long outside art camp in July, and August will bring a trip to see her cousins. And next week, she will start her church day camp, a place where she will spend the majority of her summer. The kids will spend their days learning and creating artwork and reading, but mostly, they will spend them outside, running and laughing and climbing on the playground and swinging so high their feet touch the sky.
I am so happy that Zoey will be able to have a fun-filled, laid back summer. But I also am envious, because I, on the other hand, am feeling not so lucky.
On Monday, I will head back to work and spend the majority of my day in a windowless, basement office, and the only sunshine I will get will be the synthetic kind: one that comes in the form of an easy-to-swallow capsule that has been prescribed to me by my doctor for my “significant” Vitamin D deficiency. But I often wonder—does it really do me any good? Because even when I take the vitamin, I still feel like I walk around with a perpetual “brain fog.” My bones often ache, I experience headaches, and I sometimes struggle keeping my energy levels up: I feel tired, and not in a good way.
Although experts have a hard time agreeing on whether Vitamin D supplements are really necessary or perhaps even cause more harm than good, all I have to really go on is what I experience, and to me, sunlight exposure seems to really make a substantial difference in how I feel. Because when my work day is done, and I step outside the confines of my four walls and get my daily dose of real sunshine and real Vitamin D, I immediately feel better. My mind clears, my stress level—for the most part—goes down, and my energy quickly returns. I feel a spring in my step and a lightness in my heart, and when that happens, I can’t help but immediately be transported on a nostalgic ride to my childhood.
* * *
I grew up in hot, humid, Southern cities, ones that excelled in offering perfect lazy, hazy, sunshine-drenched summers. I’m happily nostalgic for those summers, ones where the only plans my brother and I had involved simply being outside. We played in our yard and explored its dark, overgrown corners, searching for fuzzy caterpillars and little roly polys as we pretended we were scientists searching for new insect species. We stayed in a constant state of movement as the sun made its slow arc across the blue skies above, swinging on our swing set, sailing down our homemade zip-line, and playing PIG and HORSE in the front driveway.
When we grew tired of those things, we would head to the neighborhood pool and spend the afternoon swimming, playing Marco Polo, and seeing who could make the biggest cannon-ball splash. We bought Tootsie Pop suckers and cherry-flavored Popsicles from the snack bar, and we’d hang out with all our neighborhood friends. As we left to go home, we would invite them over to ride bikes around our cul-de-sac.
After dinner, the kids would start showing up, one by one. The sun, in its golden hour, would sink slowly to the horizon, and we’d ride around in circles in the fading light to a soundtrack of squeals and laughter and hoots and hollers as playing cards provided a clickity-clickity rhythm against the spokes of our bike wheels. Sometimes we played Kick the Can… Red Light, Green Light… Red Rover… Rock-Paper-Scissors… and sometimes we played silly games we just made up. Sometimes we simply sat around and talked about nothing and everything, our chattering no match for the din of the chirping cicadas that hummed from the trees above us.
As dusk settled in and we’d played a few games of Flashlight Tag or chased lightning bugs, our mom called out her last request of the day: “Come on, kiddies, it’s time to get ready for bed!” Looking forward to the invitation of our cool sheets and overhead ceiling fans, we’d say goodnight and head inside. And when we’d finally climb into our beds with our jammies on and our teeth brushed, we were officially exhausted in the best way possible.
The next day when we woke up, we couldn’t think of anything else that we wanted to do than to do it all over again.
* * *
As children, we filled our summers with the things that were most important: laughter, joy, discovery, play, fresh air, friends and plenty and plenty of sunshine.
And all of those things were so good for us, especially the sunshine. Because while scientists aren’t completely sure if swallowed Vitamin D is any good for us, one thing they do agree on is that the real sun (in reasonable amounts) really can do wonderful things.
Sunshine can…
…increase blood circulation to our inner organs and muscles.
…greatly enhance our endurance and energy.
…increase our resistance to infections.
…lower our blood sugar levels.
…stimulate our liver to break down environmental toxins.
…lower blood pressure, increase our heart’s capacity for work, and balance our hormones.
…help develop healthy bone structure.
…increase our ability to cope with stress.
So I think I’m going to stop settling for swallowed sunshine, and instead, I’m going to seek out ways to soak it up instead (with sunscreen on, of course). I will actually take a lunch break and try to take a quick walk outside. With the longer days of summer, I can postpone dinner a little bit and take Zoey to the park. We can spend our weekends lounging by the pool. Every day I can find more ways for us to get outside, and we can spend that time discovering, exploring, and simply playing. These are quick and easy ways I can naturally increase my daily dose of Vitamin D, and I have no doubt it will make me feel better every day. Most importantly, it will improve my mood and happiness level, because just like my mom always says, nothing compares to the feel of sunshine on your face.
* * *
“So it’s your first day of summer, Zoey! What do you want to do?”
Although we have a myriad of options on such a gorgeous Colorado Saturday, Zoey and I decide to kick it off by getting outside and having a simple sunshine kind of day: we bike to the local farmer’s market, stop at a park, and then head to the pool in the afternoon. While Zoey—a beautiful ray of sunshine herself—creates childhood memories that she may someday be nostalgic about, I relive my own, ones that are full of nostalgia and happiness. And when bedtime finally arrives, we fall into bed, exhausted in the best way possible.
A perfect first day of summer.
* * *
And today, on this sunny Sunday Funday, we plan to do it all over again, and we think you should, too. Your health and happiness depend on it.
Let Us Know: What’s your favorite way to fill your life with more sunshine?
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At the The Nostalgia Diaries, our goal is to help you simplify, enhance, and engage your lives by focusing on the most important things: remembering, appreciating, believing, and becoming. It’s all about celebrating the past to create better days today.
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Love this post! It’s always so refreshing being reminded how children view things even something as simple as the sun. 🙂
My favorite way to fill my life with more sunshine is taking a walk with my boys , and getting them out for fun activities on the weekends! Now that summer is (almost) here, we’ll be vacationing to my step-grandfathers shore house to swim in his heated pool !
Nothing new to say…I’m in love with your blog, what you say, and how you say it–it all feels so great. And, I’m with you–sunshine is a miracle that effortlessly transforms me…uplifts me…takes away real (and metaphorical) aches and pains. I look forward to waking up to sunshiny views every morning, and coming home from work, letting my dogs out, and swinging with them on the porch swing that’s on the back deck. Thanks for sharing 🙂
I love your blog, my favorite way to fill my life with more light and sunshine is by practicing yoga, taking a bath, and blogging honestly. it was a great post to read. Thanks so much for sharing!
Its so sad that so many Americans have Vitamin D deficiency (I’m one of those too!). My daughter loves being outside, so sunshine should not be a problem this summer! 🙂
I loved reading about this. Summer time is such a happy time. I live in Phoenix, so it’s pretty hard to escape the sun. Great for vitamin D!
My mom was just trying to convince me to take vitamin d supplements. I’m grateful for the summer sunshine.
I love going swimming with my little boy every morning when we wake up… I find the days we do this our whole day feels full of sunshine….
Sunshine is really SO important. I always notice an immediate difference as soon as I step into it! Thanks for sharing 🙂
We try to get out – and appreciate- all weathers, but really, that vit D is SO important for our wellbeing! Summer feels good!!!
I agree sunshine can have a strong affect on you. when it rains people want to sleep. cloudy feel funny not in a good mood and don’t want to go do anything.
This was a good read. I have struggled with Vit D deficiency the past year too, and when the sun is up, I walk a 5 minutes distance in twice the time because I want to feel the sunshine goodness. I’m good now, but I’m always mindful of the Vit D and supplementing. Those bone aches weren’t fun! 😅
Summers are great specially for the kids who otherwise inside most of the times. My kids get very excited during summers because they get to visit their grandparents, play outside and also the water play. Bright sunshine has so many good old childhood memories. Thank you for a refreshing post.
I empathize with you as I, also, am sitting in a windowless office with a husband who is on summer break from medical school! (Though I do have to admit he definitely deserves this time as HE’S been the one who’s had to be cooped up all year long studying).
I just want to play in the sunshine all day long! I do need to make an active effort of finding ways/excuses to go outside during the day! Even if it’s just leaving the office for lunch!
Great reminder, I work in a “cave” and definitely need to add more sunshine to my life. Favorite way to fill your life with more sunshine? Hmm … I guess it’s time I made good on my promise to go jogging more!
i had no idea sunshine could lower blood sugar levels?? thank you for sharing!
What a beautiful post. I love how kids get so excited with the smallest things, they help us see the world in a better way.
xoxo, Young Love Mommy
Love, love, love, love this post! Reading it made me feel so happy and crave the simplistic things in life even more than I already do. So refreshing and beautifully written. Have a wonderful summer full of sunshine. 💛
Such a sweet post 🙂 My bedroom’s window is east-facing. Waking up to sun shining in your room is a pure bliss.
Nature gives us everything we need to thrive, and it usually starts with the things we take most for granted, like the sun.
Thanks for the reminder 😉
I loved this post! I completely agree…the power of sunshine is truly amazing. I had no idea about all of the benefits, but I know I always feel so much better after some time spent outside soaking up those rays. Happy summer!
Your post paints the perfect image of summer nights in my childhood memories, too. I love those memories so much. Growing up outside from sun up until way after the sun went down was so magical. I kinda of miss the innocence of childhood but this post brought back a flood of memories. I also love being out in the sunshine. It’s just good for the soul.
Love this! Sometimes I love to just take a moment and feel the sun on my skin, letting it brighten my day. The whole description of falling asleep exhausted in the best possible way is exactly what I have been thinking lately! I love that my daughter and I can run around all day outside again, and then collapse, totally exhausted, once the sun goes down. I have so many great memories of summer days like that, and I can’t wait to help my daughter make the same!
Such a beautiful and inspiring post! I’m ”summer child” and summer was always my favourite season! I love that my daughter and I can run around all day outside again, and then collapse, totally exhausted, once the sun goes down.
My favorite way to get sunshine is to be out on the water on my kayak. SO peaceful. I love being able to hear the birds singing. I see a lot of blue herons and turtles and deer when I’m out on the water. Nothing beats it.
Also, have you considered a happy light for your office? You can get them from Amazon. They imitate the natural sunlight and although I’m not sure that they’d provide the vitamin D like the real sun does, they certainly help with mood. I was in a windowless office for two years and my mood suffered as a result. My happy light did wonders. I have a window now, thankfully!
I loved this post – it reminded me of my childhood summers as well! My kids love soaking up the sun as well, and I usually let them soak it in for 5-10 minutes before putting on the sunscreen so they can soak up that vitamin d unhindered. Then, on it goes.
– Christine
I have no doubt in the power of sunshine. I can feel an immediate lift in my mood and energy on bright sunshine days. And in contrast I feel heavy and lethargic on dark cloudy days. Thank goodness summer is here!
I absolutely adore you and your blog. I love your message and I love your style of writing- thank you for continuing to share your life with us. Sunshine is the single best way to make me smile- it is literally hard to have a bad day when the sun is shining!
I remember my mother always having the shades opened when the sun was out, and loving every second of it. I really relate to this and can’t wait to read more
We love playing outside and going to the beach!
Yes!!!!! I so, so agree. Sunshine and water are my happy places! They make me feel happy and they are actually, physically good for us too!
After a long, sick filled Wisconsin winter, I am SO looking forward to sunshine! My eldest daughter’s last day of school is this Thursday, and after that it’s going to be BBQ dinners, s’mores over the fire pit, dripping popsicles on the front porch, and screaming kids running through the sprinkles. And I can’t wait to waste my days in the sunshine with my girls.
I feel the same way about sunshine! I spend every summer morning sitting on the porch soaking up the sunshine! Love easy going summers. And so sorry you’re stuck in a basement office 🙁
I honestly believe I have S.A.D. I’m always happier in the sunshine!
It’s so true, the sun does wonders for my mood! Also energy levels.
We pretty much do the same at my house, I have two toddlers and well, they are my sunshine 🙂
I am so excited summer is here! We are outside for most of the day enjoying the sunshine!
Summer does have the best sunshine. Although unfortunately not enough yet this year where I live. I love warm sunny summer days. Going for a horse back ride or just a walk is my favorite in the sun! So relaxing!
Thanks for the great post. Didnt know about sunlight lowering blood sugar levels.
Wow. Ok first: blown away by this post.
Ok now my real reply 🙂 I live in the Toronto area and it’s been basically non stop clouds, rain, snow for months so I feel you on the lack of sun… I plan on initiating my same plan as last summer though: take a walk every day at lunch, try to cook dinner on the BBQ every night, and plan outside activities for the weekend!
Xxox
Laura @ http://www.cookwineandthinker.com
So. I admit it – I despise the heat of the summer. But i LIIIIIVE for sunshine! <3
Summer definitely does have the best sunshine!!