Reflections on Light

I was hoping to spend so much time outside this winter to combat the general lethargy I feel at this time of year. I’ve just left my 9-5 job and felt being outdoors would give me energy. But it has been exceptionally wet and grey so even spending more time walking has not necessarily had the effect I’d hoped for. But it has made me think about light.  About how it affects not just mood but energy levels and hence creativity. This goes beyond taking vitamin D supplements and using a SAD lamp. I need to be outside, in the elements, but I am particularly drawn to the coast at this time of year. Partly I feel the oppression of the low grey skies is offset by the longer vision out to the horizon. There is more space, room to beathe. But perhaps even more importantly the light shines on the water pushing that precious pinch of sunlight into jaded, weary eyes, jolting us awake, even at the greyest time of year. So many have written about the sea, the light and the sky, I am clearly not alone in this.

The wide expanse of a flat body of water reflects whatever sunlight is available and even on a cloudy day the horizon appears lighter than the dome of the sky, somehow promising a better future. It’s a different kind of light. Even a grey sky is brighter when reflected back from a wide watery wetness of sand and sea, softening a metallic pewter to a dove-grey mirror-image. The eyes and the imagination can get lost in the rippled lines of sand, visible under the vestiges of the outgoing tide. Constant change challenges me to find new words, new ways, to describe what I can see. There are so many stories to be traced through these watery echoes of the sky that my imagination can soar along with the flocks of dunlin feeding on the tideline.