I Count None but Sunny Hours

My great aunt Alpha once called me out to her patio to show me her new sundial. What struck me about this sundial was not the newness and the bright shiny bronze but what it said. I had never seen a sundial before with her chosen saying on it. There were many related to time, like “Time doth fly: Man must die”, “I go away and come each day, But thou shalt go away and ne’er return.”, “Grow old along with me the best is yet to be”, “I mark my hours by shadow, mayest thou mark thine by sunshine”.

Most of them that I knew looked to the future and many that look to the future tend to look to a dark future; to death and to the end. What I liked about Alpha’s sundial was that it stayed in the moment. With a fun little play on words it says “I Count None but Sunny Hours”. This saying was a reflection of Alpha’s view of life. To the very end of her life all of our conversations no matter what the topic, showed this optimistic view of circumstances. Having been born in 1900 she had seen two world wars, the Great Depression and scores of personal challenges and setbacks. She kept her eyes open and was in denial about nothing, but she still managed always to see life in the now and as something to be cherished. I had always respected her for her resilience, kindness and perspective. Of course I would be much older before I really understood the depth of what that meant.

 When Alpha died I inherited her sundial. By that time the bronze was no longer shiny, and had a dull patina, not to mention the bird droppings. It was showing its age and the difficult life it had led weathering outside. Still it continued to count none but sunny hours just like Alpha did until she passed away in a hospital bed after nearly a century. I keep the sundial to honor Alpha’s memory and help me remember the wisdom she imparted, but also as a reminder that in the midst of challenging life circumstances and times, it’s still okay to focus on the sunny hours.