The Northern Light

I don’t think I’ve been shy about my love for New York.  I suppose it’s because everything is so different from Florida, even the sunlight.  While we were visiting last month, I finally had the pleasure to become acquainted with Northern sunlight.  I never really quite understood what all the fuss is about, having lived in Florida for nearly thirty years now.  Yes, the sun rises later and sets earlier.   But I was surprised that it began to get dark at 4:30 p.m. and was completely dark by 5:30 p.m.  And I don’t think I used my sunglasses once while we were up there.  The light was indeed very different than here in The Sunshine State.

Like my friend The Swede, who can’t stop taking pictures of snow, I tried and tried to capture the light as it was, but never really quite got it.  The light is just somehow not the same, in a way that I can’t really describe.  More white and less golden.  When all the snow falls, the light reflects off it, but not in the same way it reflects off the ocean.  When the sun shines on the water, the millions of dazzling little sparkles are blinding.  When the sunlight reflects off the snow, you get the sense that while you were sleeping, your entire universe was sprinkled with glitter.

And the sunrises and sunsets are breathtaking.

I stand corrected, when I said recently that Northerners think snow is ordinary.  Steve and Erin corrected me.  I’m glad to hear it.

So even though the windows of my home are open today, and it is a glorious 72 degrees, my heart is remembering the snow and its beautiful light.  Feeling so torn between two places that I love.