You Are My Sunshine

Days are getting shorter so I am looking for the sun every chance I get right now. 

Truth be told, I’m known as one who seeks out the sun every chance I get. 

It could be that I’m like others who have come before me who also love the sun. 

In fact, there was a time when I could visit with one who not only enjoyed being out in the heat but would smile when a song about the sunshine began. 

You are my sunshine has been sung for over 80 years!

Perhaps you’ve heard  You are my sunshine, which has been sung by Gene Autry and dozens of other artists for more than 80 years. 

Can you hear it in your soul as a soft toe tap begins? 

Set yourself under a tree with bits of light coming through or on the front porch with a season change before us. 

I’ve fixed myself on a small porch step next to a sidewalk that leads to a small front grass in my memories. 

Yes, there is green grass growing all around the yard until it meets a long driveway and garage. 

Sunshine is what I felt when I sat on the small porch next to the one who introduced me to this rhythm and roll. 

Let me tell you about the person who had a soft tone of voice, who was on the lookout for notes in her mailbox from family and had a knowing gleam in her eye. 

My grandma was all knowing, or so I always thought, as I saw her on rare occasions. 

She was a treasure to me that I held dear. 

I’ve been learning from her my entire life and it started with the way the words from her so easily made me happy then. 

You knew you were the sunshine around her.

You knew you were the sunshine around her. 

Even the up and down of the horn in this song seemed to tell a story that grew over time.

Like the knowledge that came from this treasured song, I came to know more as life grew with me. 

I’ll share a little more about how this looked one time later in my life. 

Life brought this tune back to me as I sat next to this grandma as time brought us together when we were both older. 

The songs of life were sung as hands were held by one other who also held her closely. 

Seeing this brought me a pause and a way to see into my future. 

It was as if the sun was telling me how to start.

It was as if the sun was telling me how to start with the sunrise.

Yet, here it was years before I would need it. 

Can you imagine being given a gift such as this? 

Friends, take this moment to gather your energy and take someone by the soft hand with compassion then see into your past. 

Do this with such kindness that you can see the happiness when your skies look like this above you. 

Full of clouds and with light peeking around the soft corners. 

That is what I was given when the sunshine song was softly shared on the small porch the last time I sat near this grandma. 

Her hands were being held by two of her sons, my dad and a younger uncle. 

The calm in her eyes made me yearn for that in my own life for ever more. 

Skies above that day were blue, gray, and cloudy then wispy with a slight breeze. 

Does my soul remember this like it has been imprinted into my very neurons? 

Indeed it was as there was both joy and grief. Love and wonderment for what may be coming one day for all in the space. 

It did make me yearn to bring that back from that porch to my own home.

How can this happen? 

It seems to be answered in the very notes and lines of the song. 

You are the sunshine, create love and happiness.

You are the sunshine and make others create love and happiness.

More astounding than that is what has come to me since this moment. It’s what I’ve learned about how to live.. 

Love seems to always be the way through for me,

in the way I’ll always love this song

and the grandma who brought it to me. 

It will always bring me more than joy as the music will not leave me. 

What I now know is that I can continue to find a rhythm, remember to hold onto the soft and stay with what my soul has taught me. 

Doing this with grief and love is how life has taught me to see all the colors with the sunshine. 

Let’s do this together, my friends.