"Do not anticipate trouble or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight."
~Benjamin Franklin
This is my favorite quote. Something about that last line, keep in the sunlight, resonates in my soul. Sunlight is life, warmth, joy, peace. It's God, and faith, and His loving face shining down on me, on my family, and watching over us. It's my brother, my guardian angel, that bright beam of light, those golden rays which I always imagine are him peeking through the clouds, watching my kids growing up. Keep in the sunlight is such a positive message, and as a person living with a pretty severe case of anxiety, I need all the positivity I can get.
My husband and I sing John Denver's Annie's Song ("You fill up my senses...") as one of the bedtime songs for our kids every single night. My son is five years old, my daughter is almost three, and you can probably count on one hand how many times in their lifetimes that we've missed singing that song before putting them to bed. And before that? I don't especially recall singing it growing up, but any time I heard it playing on the radio or what-have-you, it's always been a favorite and I would stop and sing along.
Well, it came as quite a shock to me, oh . . . maybe a year ago? It came as a shock when I found out that I have been singing the lyrics wrong my whole life. The lyric is: You fill up my senses like a night in the forest. Not, evidently, like a light in the forest?!
Mind. Blown.
Boom.
We had been singing it wrong for so long that there was no way we were going to change now; to me it will always be a light in the forest. When I sing that lyric, and I mean every time I sing that line, I imagine the fear that someone who is lost in a dark forest, maybe camping, maybe hiking, would feel, and also that person's joyous and tearful relief when they finally spy a campfire, or lantern, or flashlight, which will guide them back. I imagine that the light is God, and I believe with my whole heart that if John Denver were still alive and I could ask him, he would not be mad at me for changing his very important song. I believe, and I hope.
Why is this important? I felt like I needed to confess my little lyrical faux pas first. I'm a writer, and a stickler for accuracy, and a rule-follower, and when I say Simply Sunlight comes in part from my love of Annie's Song, then I sound like an idiot since the song as written doesn't technically have anything to do with light. But when you know how we sing it in my house, when you know that it was a minor mistake that turned into a thoughtful edit, with no disrespect intended for John Denver, it starts making a little more sense.
And now, with all that said, I'd like to call your attention to the title of my blog: Simply Sunlight. The meaning it is first and foremost a reminder of the Benjamin Franklin quote, but also as a tribute to my Annie's Song rework. Keep in the sunlight, but also keep looking for the sunlight, the light. If you get lost, if you can't see the light, it--He--is still there. When you can't see see the sun, if it's behind a cloud or if you're in a dark forest, that doesn't mean it's gone.
You Simply have to trust in your faith that He will find you.