Let A Little Light In - Gloria Guest

The winter season brings with it shorter days and longer nights. Each year I seem just a little less tolerant of just how short our days can seem here in Saskatchewan, where we don’t change our clocks to push back the darkness but rather choose to adjust ourselves to having less light.

I like light. I need light. I am definitely one of those light deprived people this time of year; the ones referred to as having S.A.D. or Seasonal Affective Disorder, a condition whereby a lack of light can bring on a case of the blues.

Over the years I’ve found it helpful to take Vitamin D, the Sunshine vitamin to boost my mood and to also try to at least get a little real sun each day even if it means opening my curtains on days when my mood would be prefer to keep them shut. Yes, a lover of light can still hide from the light when a case of the blues hits or even worse, depression.

Just as there are physical ways to lighten ones days there are also ways to let a little light into many areas of life. For those who don’t like or can’t bring themselves to make a big change sometimes it helps to look at it the same way God created our seasons. We don’t enter the dark days of winter in one fell swoop and neither do we leave the dark that way; rather each day the light remains just a little longer, in increments of minutes, until finally one day we wake up early to full sunshine.

As writers sometimes we experience times of too much darkness and not enough light in our writing. I’ve had my share of those times and this year have been trying to think of ways to let a little light into my writing. Even though I long for a big change, I can’t always bring myself to take the leap, or perhaps I’m not meant to right now. However I can still make incremental, tiny changes to crack open the curtain an inch at a time.

Some ideas that I’ve thought of and some that I’ve tried in the past include;

- taking just one writer’s course online
- attending a writer’s workshop or conference
- visiting the library
- reading
- joining a writer’s group
- writing a journal entry
- posting on my blog
- reading scripture and or sending up a prayer
- sending an encouraging note to someone
- keeping my blog deadline for Inscribe ;)
- entering a contest (great intentions here; hope to make it a reality in the winter of 2017)
- writing one more page of my memoir
- joining with other writing friends online to mentor and encourage one another from a distance and to meet deadlines together
- setting a writing goal, however small and meeting it
- going for a walk
- basking in the sunshine (preferably with a cat nearby) ;)

If I manage to accomplish even one, two or three of the above I will find that it is lighter in my writing life and with continued effort those small, minute changes can turn into a wide open curtain and a room full of sunshine.

Let a little light in today J

Simba basking in the sunshine