When I was a child, we went camping every summer up in the High Sierra Mountains, always near a certain lake where the trout fishing was supurb.   These are some of my fondest memories and to this day, I love to trout fish.  And last year my Father gave me my Mother’s fly fishing rod which I have yet to try out.  But that is another story.

    We always went camping in August and it was always “in the dark of the moon” because that is when the fishing was at it best.   In the High Sierra Mountains of California there is often snow year around and frequently there would be big patches of snow still in our campground in August.

       Why am I writing about this today?   Well, today in Portland it is that kind of a High Sierra Summer’s Day.  It is still cold and crisp in the morning (near freezing) (Yes, we Portlanders are sick and tired of this winter!);  yet the sun is shining brightly through the cloudless sky.   Ususally I don’t open my bedroom blinds (too lazy), but this morning, the promise of sunshine streaming onto my stripped bed was too good to ignore.  And I opened the shades and the blinds full open.   Glorious sunshine streamed into my usually cave like private abode.  It totally energized me and here is is before 10:00am and I have done a load of laundry, cooked an omlette, did the dishes, made a few phone calls and now sit at the computer writing.   But, I digress.

    When we were camping, and we would wake up in the morings , it would be cold.   Daddy would get the fire going again and Mommy would make us hot coco to warm us up.  I remember one day, I was really cold and just couldn’t get warm.  I am sure I was compaining as only a 10 year old girl can complain about being “freezing cold”, yet my parents had done everything they could to get me warm.  Eventually my Dad said something I have never forgotten.  Maybe it was an attempt move “the compainer” away from the rest of the family, but I don’t think so.  I think it was his genuine concern for me that brought him to say “Take your coco and go and stand in the Sunshine.  That will help warm you up.”   I remember walking around looking for the warmest spot of sunshine I could find and gradually getting warmer.   It worked.   And I have never forgotton those words of wisdom of his.

     And this chilly, sunny Saturday in Portland has just same “feel” that that chilly sunny Morning had at our campground.   And I hope you are warmed-up by my story, too. Remember, “take your coco and go and stand in the sun.”