There’s a Light

“…over at the Frankenstein place!”

So yeah, I watched Rocky Horror on TV over the weekend. It was not as nearly as much fun as I remembered it. [Although Tim Curry is still hot, thank the goddess! But I digress …]

So yes, there *is* a light. But it is coming from the eponymous daystar we call the Sun.

Okay, I can hear the D’oh zooming around the world. “But wait, I can explain.” [Inset giggles here because this phrase is the calling card of Julie, what then follows is a hysterically funny story. But again I digress …]

What I discovered was that the solar cycle may be a large part of the reason I am having such a tough time at the moment. And the light I am referring to is the bright sunshine that has been in short supply as of late. Which provided the light of insight when I realized that I might have a mild case of Seasonal Affective Disorder. After a sunny day improved my fatigue, brain fog and sugar cravings drastically, I became curious. So I replaced my living room lamp light bulbs, taking out the CFCs and replacing them with full spectrum bulbs. And the mood improvement was again drastic. Leaving the living room area also produced a noticeable energy drop. Wow! This is huge!

So I dragged out my journals for the last few falls and noticed that I always attributed the fall fatigue and diminished activity levels to external sources of stress and/or my own perceived lack of internal will. But what if this was simply a part of my natural energy pattern associated with the seasonal change?

I had already noted my Solstice dip, my corresponding downward slide of energy starting at about Thanksgiving culminating at the Solstice and then rising steadily through Spring. So why had I not noticed the effect earlier, say starting at the Equinox? And the answer is again revelatory. I had not noticed because I was too busy beating myself up as it became harder and harder to focus or keep up my routines.

Um yeah, that makes sense … beat myself up just as I begin waning in energy … NOT. So guess who will be researching light boxes in the not so distant future? And… guess who will now consider seasonal changes in her annual planning matrix?

Posted in

Submitted by katrina on Tue, 12/02/2008 - 4:51pm.

Pax (not verified) | Sat, 01/03/2009 - 11:31pm

Seasonal Affective Disorder or S.A.D is, if I remember right, a form of Depression that folks can fall into in Winter in climates with a lot less daylight in that time of year.

Being from Anchorage, Alaska... I've heard of it...

Google the disorder and I can recommend the Wikipedia and Mayo Clinic articles especially!

Peace and I hope you feel better!

Pax

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Recent comments

  • Claire-Marie Le Normond (not verified)

    Wish I could be there. Very well spoken.

    15 weeks 2 days ago
  • David Salisbury (not verified)

    Katrina,
    I wish you all the blessings and power you need on your journey. Thank you for these words. It is good to remember that returning to work (and thus returning to grace) bring a chance for us all to rest and have joy.
    Wishing you joy in the Work.

    David

    17 weeks 4 days ago
  • Sigre (not verified)

    Dear Katrina- Thorn reposted your blog and happy am I. Your passion, always so immense, comes blowing out in these words. So akin to my own heart and soul that it makes me have a bittersweet smile.

    The Storm is only now coming to the edges of our universe and yet it will sweep and consume all that is. In the end, our beautiful universe will be so much...more? Different? Complete? Who knows?

    All I do know is my soul came here to witness and be part in this period. I cannot shrink from the work. I am here with you, fae sister!

    17 weeks 5 days ago
  • Macha NightMare (not verified)

    Thought-provoking piece, Katrina. Thanks.

    I don't know what to call myself either. In Pagandom, I've taken to referring to myself as a Witch at Large. In the interfaith world where I'm active, I call myself a Pagan. Sometimes I call myself an uppity woman or a Second Wave Feminist. I've never really thought to publicly identify myself by my sexuality, het woman, which is very "white bread" and old-fashioned. Not only het, but serially monogamous for the most part. It seems almost a liability these days to say you're het, but I am proudly and happily so. I tend towards intellectualism but only have a BA, which doesn't carry much weight, at least in public and professional worlds, no matter how much you've studied, trained, and can articulate, even teach.

    My biological heritage is Irish, Dutch, French Huguenot, Euro-mongrel. My social heritage is Roman Catholic on one side and conservative Methodist, temperance-crusading, women's rights and education on the other, with distinct East Coast sensibilities, now mellowed by more than half a century living on the Left Coast. My maternal political heritage is conservative Republican (altho what my relatives might think of current trends in the GOP I cannot imagine, since they did have brains and they did think and they did have a social conscience), yet I am much farther left in my outlook than any elected official I know. My paternal political heritage is blue collar Democratic, except that my dad broke with his family on politics and allied with my mother's family's conservatism.

    I'm a former hippie, a home-birth advocate, a home death and green burial advocate, an opponent of capital punishment and resorting to warfare to resolve humankind's differences. I support the right to conscious self-deliverance. I rejoice in any and all consensual expressions of love and eros. I'm a lover and a mom.

    I have never missed voting in an election and I disrespect those who don't avail themselves of this hard-won right. (I have ancestors who fought the Brits in the American Revolution.) I support workers' rights. I recognize our interdependence on this planet, so could be called a greenie. I'm a committed environmentalist in my day-to-day life (in terms of eating locally grown food, expanding public transit, recycling, preserving open space and wildlife, opposing exploitation of natural resources [strip mining, oil-drilling, nuclear facilities, agribusiness, monocultures, clear-cutting timber, overuse of pesticides, genetic modification, etc.]) I want to make the city streets "safe for dancing," as my old friend Tony Serra said when he ran for mayor of SF on the Platypus Party ticket.

    Well, you got me going there, my friend. Thought-provoking read, as I said. ;-)

    xo,
    Macha

    34 weeks 2 days ago
  • Eridanus (not verified)

    Lovely azaleas!

    [cough][gag][snort][sneeze]

    Just lovely...

    I know what you mean.

    36 weeks 5 days ago
  • Anonymous (not verified)

    I feel you. There is too much bs- particularly when people decide that their temperament is tantamount to truthful and ignore everyone else.
    I get irked by immature extroverts or closet introverts who ignore you REPEATEDLY and then pretend you're out of line for being upset by the time they can't pretend you didn't say anything anymore. I find that the same people will ignore you if you blow up right away, too, and that it's because they just don't think that honoring what you value is important to maintaining a relationship, or even worse: that you don't know what you value at all and that it's all a mind game for their pleasure or annoyance. Then they call you passive-aggressive, aggressive, moody, touchy and temperamental. I call them "not listening".

    36 weeks 6 days ago