'Winter Blues' : Some Thoughts about Dark Mornings

I really hate the dark mornings! After all, it's more natural to be in bed when it's dark than it is to be getting out of bed. I guess that goes back to our caveman ancestry when, just like the bears, we retire into the safety of our cave once it gets dark and stay there until it's daylight. Getting up in the dark means that it takes longer to be properly awake, and that means that it's easy to be a little bit grumpy --- a bit bear-headed.

Give me the summer mornings any day. In fact, give them to me every day if you can! On those mornings I'm happy to be up more-or-less at sunrise, and I'm usually to be found in the most cheerful of moods to boot. Even if it's raining I'm still cheerful. I think it has everything to do with the amount of light that streams into my consciousness.

I remember listening to a discussion on the radio one afternoon when I ran a candle factory in Newtown, Mid Wales. I suppose that I was sort of half-listening, as you do, when suddenly I started to take note of the discussion. It was about something called 'Seasonally Affected Disorder' or SAD for short, and as I listened, now more intently, I recognised the description of the feelings that many of us often have in the winter on dark mornings. Ever since, as a result of that programme, if I feel a little depressed because of the dark morning, instead of thinking that I should be crawling back into my cave I turn the brightest lights on and soon the feeling of 'being down' is gone.

Mind you, I often get a feeling of 'being down' when I look at the night sky as well, for the stars are so well hidden by the glow of the light pollution that fills the atmosphere around our towns and even many villages. Gone are the days when you could just look up at the sky and see the carpet of stars laid out in all their glory on a crisp winter night. When I lived in Africa we had no such problem, even living on the city outskirts, and I could look up into the heavens night after night and see the glory that God has placed there. It was the most awesome sight!

One day, we are told in Scripture, when we are in Heaven, we'll not need light from the sun or the moon or any sort of artificial light, for we'll have all the light we need shining from the Glory of God Himself. How wonderful that will be! There'll be no more 'Winter Blues' then.