Sitting at the Window

Waiting for the sun

The high thin clouds were turning pink. The weather experts said those clouds were going to burn off by mid-morning and that the rest of the day would be sunny.

Camille was tingling with anticipation of feeling the warm rays of the sun touching her skin. The town in which she lived had been covered by a thick blanket of clouds for over two weeks during which the sun had not once come out. This had produced a sadness that fully enveloped her.

Sitting at her window waiting for the first rays of sunshine to appear, she thought about the conversations she had had with her friends over the previous days. None of them seemed to have been saddened by the sun deprivation. To them, everything was normal.

Why did it affect her so much? Why did she slip into melancholy after just one day without sunshine? Why did she become consumed with depression after just a few days?

As Camille sat impatiently looking out the window at the sky, her cat slept in her lap, providing her with a modicum of warmth and love. She had noticed that on gray gloomy days the cat spent much more time in her lap. Camille became the cat’s sun on cloudy days. Just like her, the cat was a sun person.

Camille had grown up in a far away desert where the sun shined almost every single day. Her mind, body, and spirit had grown accustomed to that. The sun had provided the nourishment for her to grow up strong and vibrant and happy.

Eventually her life situation took her far to the north where the days were shorter and cloudy skies were the norm. With each passing year in the dreary north she sank deeper into sadness. The life was draining out of her.

For her life to improve, for the joy to return, would she have to find a way to move southward? Would she have to find a new home where the sun was a regular part of each day? Would that finally release her depression?

Just then, not far above the horizon, the rays of the sun found an opening between clouds and streaked through the window. The cat immediately woke up. Standing, the cat then jumped from Camille’s lap to the window sill where it sat upright absorbing those rays.

As the sun touched her face, Camille also absorbed the life-giving rays. She could feel joy awaken in her heart. She took a deep breath and smiled.

Copyright by White Feather. All Rights Reserved. This is a work of fiction. Complete White Feather Archive Index

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