Let There be Light

I remember reading about SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) in the 80's, at the time I wasn't entirely convinced that you could become depressed by not having enough sunlight in your life.

And then I moved in to our compound.

We have plenty of sunlight in Doha. Scorching sunlight to be precise. Unfortunately though, often Middle Eastern design means that many of us are relatively windowless at the front of our homes. While this is highly conducive to privacy, it can make for very dark rooms at certain times of the day.

I find that if the room is dark and gloomy, my mood will soon match it. I'm a person who needs bright and light, this became apparent to my parents when as a child, I requested that my room be painted bright yellow. I can still picture my mother's face "Are you sure dear? Bright yellow?" I love open windows, sheer curtains, white linen, and lots of bright colour interspersed amongst it.

The children refer to the beach house as our inside/outside house. On warmer days we slide both the back and front glass doors open and pretend we're camping, only we have polished concrete floors and electrical appliances. On cooler days the doors are closed but the blinds are always up, I need to be able to look outside. We're lucky that our street is a quiet one, I probably wave to four or five people a day as they wander past with their dogs.

I often stand here at the kitchen sink staring out at the trees - because I can.

This morning when the rain stopped, the second little traveler said "look at the rain drops glistening in the trees". And I did, because I can.

I had about an hour of child free time this afternoon where I sat here and pretended to write. While I pretended to write I had a cup of coffee, wiped down a few surfaces, put some music on, and folded some washing. That took me about an hour. Oops.

And then the view changed.

This weekend we'll be filling this table with family and friends, there will be more dinners, more wine, more endless morning coffees, newspaper sharing and trips to the bakery - because we can.

Have a great weekend, wherever you may be.

Kirsty xx