We wake up, Sun is not yet there. We leave our desks at work or school, Sun is already gone.

Last week we had some bright days, when I couldn’t take my eyes off the office window and the only thing I dreamed about around 12 o’clock was not the lunch, but how to GET OUT. Go outside, breathe and enjoy the sunbeams. We did that with couple of my colleagues who, the same as me, appreciate minutes of light. Natural light.

When I think about my values somehow they are closely related to Mother Nature and its power to rule our lives. Lithuania is much up north compared to the  Netherlands. Although the length of the day is very similar, we have much stronger difference between four seasons. Winter is supposed to be white and cold. Spring comes late, but is extremely green and blossomy. Summer can be blue or greenyellow, full of berries and mushrooms (depends on how much Sun and Rain sky offers to the Baltic people and the land). And then.. autumn. Long, grey, chilly.. and only a splash of colors, when the trees decide to drop off their outfits.

The culture is built around the changes in the Nature. Apples are eaten in the late summer and autumn, and some are saved for winter in the dark basement which slows down the rotting. Strawberries is the treat of June. Blueberries are picked in the forest of July. We celebrate light in winter, when miraculously two weeks after Christmas the day becomes longer by three steps of a rooster. Yes, a rooster. It is probably impossible to translate the saying literally, but the idea is that each second of more LIGHT makes us happy. Therefore in the end of June the night is beaten by the longest day with the midsummer fest. Girls and boys jump over the fire, single ladies make beautiful flower wreaths and send them with the river flow, hoping to later in the year meet the good man. No sleep. And all the Balts are in the woods searching for the, perhaps non-existing, blossom of fern. The blossom which makes all the dreams of teeny tiny human to come true. People celebrate the light.

So, when we, Baltic people, and I can also talk for some of my Scandinavian friends, see the Sun, no matter how cold it is, we run outside and soak up the light. Vitamine D. We can smile and save the smile for coming greyer days. And we enjoy the warmth on our skin.