Life: Idiotropic

I think I'm finally able to understand the snow bird syndrome. Before now I had realized, of course, that there are a lot of health problems in older people that are exacerbated by the cold, wet weather, hence the major flocking of seniors to hot sunny spots like Florida and Arizona each winter.

But, I think it's more than just an easing of arthritis pain. I think it's mental too. When I was a kid, the weather had absolutely no impact other than spoiling a play date here or there. Now, (yes, as I age) days without sun are getting to me. Not that a little sunless weather is going to throw me into some unrecoverable depression. I'm fine. And while among the string of cloudy days, I hardly notice a difference, but oh, when that sun comes out, I feel like a completely new person. Forget spas. I just need a little dose of sun and a smidgen of warmth even if it's the bit of warmth from a sun soaked car.

Yesterday delivered exactly the mental medicine I needed in one complete day of absolute blue-sky sun. No bouts of rain. No hail. No changes at all for an entire day. The curtains were flung carelessly open as if in some over dramatized commercial, and I found myself smiling, almost ridiculously, in sheer joy, for no real reason other than my mood change aux soliel.

So, I had a lovely Spanish morning with my friends platicando, and then had an hour to kill before I picked up Elise, so I parked in GK and just walked. Stepping into shops here and there, walking into the church in the square for the first time, and taking pictures of random things. At Elise' school I arrived just a few minutes early, so I took a walk in the cemetery there. Filled with the noises of the birds singing and the children laughing, it's more botanical garden than cemetery, each grave a mini garden in and of itself. Planted flowers, glass vases with fresh tulips, and baskets everywhere of planted blooms and decorative eggs. Full of life, there is no place for sadness.

Photos: Hydrangeas for sale at a blumenhaus, the handle on the church door in GK, the church with the fountain statue in the foreground, the inside of the church, Elise in pink on a large teter-totter thing in her school playground, a floral basket by a grave in the Gillrath cemetery.