I have a lovely Harris Tweed jacket that I bought when we were in England visiting our daughter, who lived there for a couple of years. It is an especially warm sport coat that is enough jacket for extended periods of time outdoors during the spring and fall - and often during the winter in our Washington home. Some days, when going for a walk, if I’m going somewhere that will not result in my getting dirty, I wear the jacket. If I wear a stocking cap and a pair of gloves, I know I’ll be toasty warm in that jacket.

The jacket was an extravagance in the midst of an extravagance. The trip to England pressed our ability to pay and then I topped it by purchasing something else for myself. Now, years later, I don’t regret the purchase. I certainly don’t regret the trip. I am completely convinced that when one divides expenses between “needs” and “wants,” visiting children falls into the “needs” category. When I’ve gone too long without seeing one of our children or grandchildren, my longing grows so intense that being with that loved one becomes as important as food. I have no idea how families endure permanent separations. Fortunately, I have not had to learn that lesson.

The jacket wasn’t the most expensive clothing purchase I made on that trip. We bought our daughter’s wedding dress while we were visiting her in England. That dress traveled back to South Dakota with her for her wedding. It moved to Missouri with her after the wedding. Then it came back to our home when she and her husband moved to Japan. It moved to Washington with us and then, we took it to South Carolina when we drove down to visit them after they moved there. The dress was worn for a single occasion, but it is very well traveled.

There were other wonderful adventures that were a part of that trip to England. I got to punt on the Cam when we visited Cambridge. The technique is to push the punt using a long pole that reaches the bottom. It takes a bit of practice to handle the pole without being a bit awkward. I didn’t get good at it, but I did succeed in getting the punt to propel us on the famous river of scholars.

I also remember a very gray day when we drove around the area in a rental car. The sea was wild and the day was short.

We had driven to Olympia, Washington, to visit our son and had flown from Seattle to Vancouver, British Columbia to board our flight to England. The return trip took the same route in reverse. I remember looking at the map in the airline and realizing that England was farther north than Vancouver. It is something that I remember in the short days of winter here. We notice the shorter days, but they aren’t as short as the winter days were for our daughter when she lived in England.

Scotland, where Robert Louis Stevenson lived, is even farther north, with even shorter days in the winter. He wrote:

Late lies the wintry sun a-bed,  
A frosty, fiery sleepy-head;  
Blinks but an hour or two; and then,  
A blood-red orange, sets again.  

Before the stars have left the skies,
At morning in the dark I rise;  
And shivering in my nakedness,  
By the cold candle, bathe and dress. 

The length of the day and the amount of sunlight we experience has a dramatic effect on our well being. And the experience of dawn is a critical element in establishing our circadian rhythm. Light in the blue spectrum is strongest at dawn and that light is received by specialized cells within our eyes that receive this light and sends signals to our body clock to tell us what time it is. These specialized ganglion cells have nothing to do with vision. People who are blind also can sense the light of dawn and their body rhythm is set and refreshed by the light. People who live closer to the poles adjust their sleep and waking patterns in response to the rhythm of daylight, sleeping more in the winter and less in the summer without being consciously aware of the effects of the change in the amount of sleep.

However, modern urban people have altered patterns arising from the extensive use of artificial light. When it gets dark, we flip a switch and stay up into the night. Furthermore, we tend to be slow to go outside in the morning, which has a big effect on the amount of that special dawn light that we receive. Studies have shown that simply going outside at dawn results in receiving four or five times as much of this rhythm-setting light as receiving it through window glass.

As a result, we live artificial lives, our circadian clocks not receiving the necessary information to regulate our sleep. We stay up late into the darkness and we tend to stay indoors too much. The World Health Organization is aware of this so much that it recommends that prisoners be allowed to be outdoors a minimum of one hour every day. Keeping them inside all day long is considered to be cruel punishment.

Robert Lewis Stevenson was not a healthy man. He died in his mid-forties after suffering a chronic lung ailment for most of his life. He did, however, seem to understand the value of going outside, even in the midst of the winter.

When to go out, my nurse doth wrap  
Me in my comforter and cap;  
The cold wind burns my face, and blows
Its frosty pepper up my nose.  

Black are my steps on silver sod;  
Thick blows my frosty breath abroad;  
And tree and house, and hill and lake,  
Are frosted like a wedding-cake.

A study conducted at the Broadmoor Institute showed that the equivalent of 20 minutes of bright sunshine in the morning was more dramatic in elevating the mood of patients than anti-depressants. When our skin is exposed to sunlight, it starts making vitamin D. Vitamin D is essential to strong bones and a healthy immune system.

So the medial advice is to go outside when you see the sun. And those of us who live in norther places need to be especially careful to do so in the winter months. Spring will come. The days are getting longer. Now is the time to get outside and enjoy it.