Clito sunshine

Nature has a great way of reminding us of its simple pleasures! This photo was taken on Clito Road in Spring Valley, VA—high up in the hills of Appalachia. There is no filter used. Back then, the only filters ever used were by professional photographers. The intensity of the sun when I pointed my old Samsung flip phone at it back in the early 2000’s basically blocked out most of the color except for the pink halo in the sky. You can’t tell from looking at the picture, but it was one of those hot summer days where the sky was so clear it was almost translucent. The hills and grass were also green, not gray as they appear in this photo. That doesn’t mean the content of the photo doesn’t point towards greener pastures and bluer skies, though.

This photo has stayed with me for about 15 years, as it was taken during a time when I had nothing ahead of me and nothing behind me but an old dirt road. I longed to experience that which was beyond these dirt roads. However, I didn’t know then that I’d spend the rest of my life trying to get back to those dirt roads of my youth. Life throws many dusty trails and city lights our way. The funny thing about it is we find ourselves loving each one in a different way because they bring about the unexpected, the possibilities. One possibility of this image is the great Higher power showing that there’s a light beyond every road block and we must seek it to find it. This area of Virginia has always held a special place in my heart and it seems only fitting that I would find such beauty there. There’s also peace—peace beyond any understanding of what I now know as a New Englander. If something as simple as the sun and stars in the sky can make us feel joy and peace and wonder, imagine what else we are capable of?!

That which we don’t know or understand often scares the human mind and rattles the human heart. What if, those very things that bring the unexpected are the things that will lead to the greatest satisfactions, freedoms and memories in life? The unknown can set us free! There’s a whole great big universe out there that is nothing but unknowns to us. That’s what I was looking for when I moved to Maine. No matter where I am or what I’m doing, if I feel stressed or lost or just having a bad day, this photo always reminds me to breath and find a sunny spot and let it warm me to my soul.

I wish that I could bottle the Clito sunshine up and use it as a therapeutic capsule. It’d take me back to simpler times and great memories with ones I love and miss so much. It’d also remind me to look ahead with great expectations and hope. These are the roads I roamed as a young adult when I had nothing but time and hope. It’s where I learned that you can’t make someone feel something they don’t. You can’t make it rain on a drought. You can’t turn the gray sky into a blanket of blue. You can, however, hold those you love close to you in your own heart. You can shower the world with that love, and you can teach others that a gray sky is just as capable of causing a smile on your face as a blue one. It all depends on how you look at the world, and how the sunshine looks back at you.