Dear Reader:

The SUN has always been the key object of ancient civilizations’ spiritual rituals …to present day’s appreciation. And this devotion doesn’t stop with just the enjoyment of the sun and all the fun opportunities it affords us ( though as children we thought so) especially on disappointing rainy Saturday’s .

But since my first ten childhood years from birth on… were influenced by polio, libraries, and the Mothers March of Dimes… the sun became equated to happiness... quite early on.

Rain or shine Saturday morning mother took me and my two brothers to the local library to return and check out two selections per child.

It was outside with tents set up for rainy days and the special days when we got there early enough to hand our dime ( each) from our weekly allowance to the nice lady at the desk.

Posters Everywhere promoted the March of Dimes Polio Campaign started with FDR… our only President wheelchair bound from his own encounter with polio.

( My earliest nightmares came from evening news reports of children confined in iron lungs-even at that early age I was terrible claustrophobic! )

It was Sunday-afternoons that I feel sure mother prayed for sunshine to get us kids out of the house playing with neighborhood friends while she had her sacred reading time… we kids knew that we needed to handle our three hours of freedom and unless it was a real emergency stay outside!

Mother had already gotten us up whining …to go to Sunday School and Church, eaten the best meal of the week and now mother had her 3 happy hours to read and not be interrupted! She was an avid reader until she passed and my brothers and I have carried this love within us throughout life! Sunshine and reading!

Now let’s jump ahead a couple of decades to the seventies … my husband and I went to a National Educators Conference held in New Orleans… we decided not to stay in the huge hotel where the conference was being held but to stay in the French Quarters soaking up the flavor of its history near Jackson Square. I remember that weekend was frigidly cold but the sun was out shining brightly!

We saw where Billy Davis Jr and Marilyn McCoo were the top entertainment at the conference and were performing songs from their old group/The Fifth Dimension … when they sang ” Let the Sun Shine In” the crowd went crazy!!! A wonderful memorable night and after the performance they both came over and shook our hands personally as well as everyone else -unforgettable evening

In Psalm 136:8 scripture reads: The sun to rule over the day , for His steadfast LOVE endures forever.” ( we humans love sunshine because we feel God’s love directed straight at us! )

Yesterday January 30 was filled with sunshine… no blend of both clouds and snatches of sun… but Sun All Day! How could we not be happy feeling God’s love fall on us… me in the courtyard … yesterday watching Rebekah smiling in the sunlight during an act of kindness for another that would change her life forever!