sun.

word of the day: sun \ˈsən\ the luminous celestial body around which the earth and other planets revolve, from which they receive heat and light, which is composed mainly of hydrogen and helium, and which has a mean distance from earth of about 93,000,000 miles (150,000,000 kilometers), a linear diameter of 864,000 miles (1,390,000 kilometers), and a mass 332,000 times greater than earth


I LOVE sun. If I could emphasize the word "love" even more in that sentence, I would.

I've been thinking a lot lately about how many things in my life the sun touches, and how much better each day is because of it. Summer isn't even officially here, and yet, I am already finding so much joy in all the ways I feel the presence of the sun.

I see the sun in the lilies that adorn my coffee table right now. I see the sun in the Red Stripe bottles they bask in, because beer seems to play a larger role in the summer. I'm not a beer drinker myself, but I enjoy watching bottles perspire as people pop the top on an especially humid day. There's just something refreshing about it. Plus, they make really fantastic vases.



I see the sun in the peonies on my kitchen table and I smell the sun in the fragrance they produce. I love the brightness that fresh flowers produce and if I could always have a bouquet somewhere in my house, I would.



I saw the sun at the Farmer's Market on Saturday where I bought the previously mentioned peonies. I saw it in the sun tan I left downtown with and in my hair when the work of my straightener did not last. I saw it in the water a nice lady offered to a panting Ginny and when the man told me people were bound to give me compliments because of my peonies. Nobody gave me compliments. The sun kept on shining anyways.

I see the sun in flip-flops and my newly formed flip-flop tan line. I feel it as the dew soaks my toes when I take Ginny outside early in the morning. I appreciate the sun at 5:45 in the morning for not making the waking up process so unbearable.


In case you're wondering, that's first position you're looking it.

I see the sun in Ginny because she spends a lot more time laying on the cool tile inside our house. If she's not on the tile, then she's usually perched on the window sill behind our couch. Jake thinks she's a "cat-dog," but I think she just wants to be nearer to the sun (and to me, because she's still totally over-attached). Here is how she sits as I type this:



I saw the sun when I walked out of a Saturday matinée of Robin Hood last week (which you should see if you haven't already). I see it in the smell of a burning grill and pool chemicals in our back yard. I see it in my new pitcher full of Country Time pink lemonade and in the iced caramel macchiato I treat myself to occasionally. I see it in Jake's face, because anytime he gets to be outside in the sun he beams like the sun itself.

And so, I will forever LOVE the sun.

Great is the sun, and wide he goes
Through empty heaven with repose;
And in the blue and glowing days
More thick than rain he showers his rays.

Though closer still the blinds we pull
To keep the shady parlour cool,
Yet he will find a chink or two
To slip his golden fingers through.

The dusty attic spider-clad
He, through the keyhole, maketh glad;
And through the broken edge of tiles
Into the laddered hay-loft smiles.

Meantime his golden face around
He bares to all the garden ground,
And sheds a warm and glittering look
Among the ivy's inmost nook.

Above the hills, along the blue,
Round the bright air with footing true,
To please the child, to paint the rose,
The gardener of the World, he goes.

-Summer Sun by Robert Louis Stevenson