Musings of a Whimsical Realist

As the fall/winter season drags on, I begin to miss something more and more each day: sunshine!  I LOVE sunshine!  I crave it.  I let it pour over me, warming me to the absolute core of my being. Don’t get me wrong, my melancholy temperament thrills at a dense fog or a gloomy overcast sky.  But sunshine is vital to keeping that same melancholy in check instead of allowing it to steam-roll my emotions into a soggy, tearful mess.  “Seasonal affective disorder (also called SAD) is a type of depression that occurs at the same time every year.  If you're like most people with seasonal affective disorder, your symptoms start in the fall and may continue into the winter months, sapping your energy and making you feel moody” (Mayo Clinic).  This is the technical explanation for why I crave sunlight in the winter.  “A drop in serotonin, a brain chemical (neurotransmitter) that affects mood, might play a role in seasonal affective disorder.  Reduced sunlight can cause a drop in serotonin

As I sat there that day during my high school years, I was unaware that a seed was about to be planted.  I can’t remember if I was in church, at school, or with my youth group, but I remember the exact moment that the words sunk into my heart: “In China, because they are only allowed one child, hundreds of little girls are left without families every year.”  And for the first time, years away from motherhood, I considered the word ADOPTION.  The seed planted was watered many times over the years.  In college, I discovered a love (passion, even) for world geography and history.  I took for fun (yes, I’m a bit crazy like this) History of the Far East.  I worked with children professionally as a piano teacher and voluntarily at my church.  In 2007, I was finally transformed into a mother with the birth of my eldest daughter.  Deep within me, the planted seed sprouted, waiting, in a kind of calm stasis.  Then, in 2011, the twins were born.  As we rejoiced in their arrival and made the