Little people can teach us a lot about life.

At this point in time, my not-quite-two year old is wise beyond what she can express through her vocabulary. This is often a source of frustration for her, and my challenge is to efficiently decode her words so as to validate her verbal communication.

So when she looks at me with her big brown eyes on these cold mornings when I’d rather be rugged up inside; and repeatedly beckons ‘owside, owside!’; here is the interpretation:

“ Dad: due to the impending season, our opportunities to absorb daylight are becoming increasingly limited. This is compounded by our modern tendencies to stay in the warm and ride out the cold weather. For many people, it wouldn’t be unusual to achieve less than five minutes of direct outside light exposure on an average day during the colder months. They may be unaware of Seasonal Affective Disorder – a set of symptoms resulting from reduced daylight exposure. Fatigue, depression, irritability, trouble concentrating, soreness, decreased physical activity, overeating, weight gain – are all symptoms of hormonal imbalance, synonymous with those who just don’t like winter and avoid exposure to it. There also appears to be greater risk of illness due to increased uptake of recycled air and heightened exposure to germs. I’d like to avoid this, so I need you to get me outside at regular intervals during the week. Especially when the sun’s out as inside light does not suffice. So let’s go OUTSIDE!! “   (enter battering of eyelids)

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