Precious sunlight

My ever-growing dislike of winter is not without cause.  While it is the cold temperatures that I like least of all, I am certainly not overly fond of the lack of light.  In recent days I find myself noticing this greater darkness more than before.

The sun over the Eternal City does not seem to rise higher than 45 degrees, if it makes it that high.  When combined with the narrow streets and buildings that rise five and six stories, seeing the sun can take some effort on most days.

Because of the height of the building in which I live and the palm tree in the inner courtyard just outside my window, sunlight streams into my room now for about thirty minutes each day, if the day is not cloudy and the plant I bought in the fall is struggling to survive.

To make it even worse, winters in Rome, while not very cold by midwestern standards, are generally filled with clouds and rain, which contributes even more to the lack of sunlight.

This is what make days like today all the more special, when the sun shines brightly - if lowly - against a mostly blue sky:

In the winter, the sunlight is all the more precious.

Sometimes it is the simple blessings in life that we must remember in order to keep plodding on.  Spring will be here before too long, though not soon enough.