Michael: Light

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

The gray is coming
Every afternoon with
A cool hard cleansing.

How living here in Panama effects our health is very important to us. I’ve talked about diet and exercise but there are a plethora of factors that effect our well being that are different here from when we were living in L.A. Two other aspects of life that Kimme and I value are the quality of light and sound that surround us. Today I’ll tackle how the light situation here differs from when we were in L.A.

We both felt fortunate to live in the sunny climates of L.A.  Great Sunshine and natural light almost every day. Unfortunately for us, we didn’t have complete access to that light and spent our last few years there in a rather Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Sunshine apartment.

We lived in an old two story block row apt. building on the west side in Mar Vista. It was  a first floor a one bedroom apt. that was closest to the street. The bedroom/workout room/my room faced the street and had great light. The living room/design center/sweat shop faced the small courtyard and because the next apt. building was very close, it had the light of a very dimly lit dungeon. Kimme made the best of it by flooding it with lights, but we both agreed that it was both harmful to her physical health and overall well being and were determined to avoid such a dismal lighting situation in the future.

Finding a place to rent for our year in Panama online was stressful. We couldn’t afford to fly just to visit again and check out all of the choices so we were relying solely on the pictures and reports we could get off the net. Nerve wracking. From the pictures, it appeared that the small cabin we’re in now, had the windows and space to provide great natural light, and, thank God, it does.

We are now beginning to go through the weather pattern that should dominate much of the rainy season, and if the reports, and testimonial evidence we’ve been getting, are accurate, we should be getting a decent dose of sunlight for at least half the day and then filtered cloud/rain light into the early evening. We’re hoping that will work for us. We know we’re going to find out shortly.

Here, we also have a reasonable buffer of space around us so we don’t have to cover the windows to maintain our privacy. There is a dirt road that some of our neighbors use near the front of our cabin, and Luzmilla, her sister and nephew live next door on our kitchen/dining room side, so we do cover most of the downstairs windows at night. But it’s not necessary, possible, or desirable, to cover the upstairs windows. In fact it’s been a pleasure to wake up to the veil of darkness slowly lifting to see the beautiful morning bride that is this countryside without us having to lift a finger. We both have lived in lofts before and the openness and light provided from a well designed loft can really lift the spirit.

If the lighting situation does work, and other factors work in this region of Panama’s favor, we will design and build a living/work space here that would be sure to have as much natural light as we can shine into it.