The second week of January is usually cold and gray here in New Jersey. But today, it is unseasonably warm, and uncharacteristically bright. Mostly sunny.

At chair yoga this morning, I lifted the blinds as high as I could so that the room would be drenched in light. My senior yogis, of varying physical abilities, moved whichever limbs they could move, and took slow deep breaths, as the dust danced around in the sun soaked space.

When the hour was ending we placed our hands on our hearts and invited in a sense of gratitude for it all. Gratitude for the breaths we took. Gratitude for whatever our bodies were able to do today. Gratitude for the time spent together in community, with the blinds fully open, on this bright and beautiful January day.

As soon as it was over I made my way outside. Now, I am soaking up the vitamin D. I am feeling ever-grateful for the warm winter days that interrupt the cold spells. I am feeling ever-grateful for the bright days that break up the stretches of gray. I am happy to have these tiny patches of lightness.

We have to find that light wherever we can right now. Soak up the sunshine to charge our batteries. Hold onto it.

I want to hold onto it. So I took a photo. Here it is.

I know what I see. I see a mostly sunny sky. And I choose to call this a sunny day.

If I were to post it on social media with the caption Mostly Sunny Day, I imagine that someone would comment ‘Partly cloudy day’.

What would begin as a snarky jab from a friend , or welcome discourse about semantics, might soon be misinterpreted and escalate to a debate. We all see the same photo (fact) but we each interpret it according to our own inclinations. And we all feel entitled to share our judgments and interpretations. Eventually, it might lead to name calling- Pollyanna! Pessimist! or abusive language- Stupid! Crazy! Eventually, my mostly sunny day could turn dark.

Yesterday was a dark day.

In Minneapolis (fact) an American woman (fact) was shot and killed (fact) by a masked ICE agent (fact). It happened less than one mile (fact) from where George Floyd was murdered (fact) in 2020. There are multiple undoctored videos of yesterday’s incident from several different angles.

I watched the videos. I know what I saw. Then I read the comments. We all see the same thing (fact) but we each interpret it according to our own inclinations. We all feel entitled to share our judgments and interpretations. We post our opinions. They lead to arguments. They escalate to abusive language and calls for violence. They get dark.

Fact: these are dark days.

But today, I am soaking up the sun. I am loading up on vitamin D. I am taking slow deep breaths. I am charging my battery. I am storing up energy.

If you’ve been paying attention, you know that we have to soak up the sunshine whenever and wherever we can. So that we might be the tiny patches of lightness.