Although I prefer a rainy day to a sunny one, I will say this about sunlight: it can make even the most drab of items shine.

Discarded junk takes on a heavenly aura when the sun is out. The colors found in a pile of trash make up a rainbow of history.

Mother Nature takes on a new dimension. The restful blue of an ocean becomes more vibrant and reminds us of the life teeming beneath the surface, a world otherwise more hushed — if not downright silent — when a blanket of clouds selfishly halts the sun from spotlighting the sea. The calming green of our gardens is brightened, a reminder that both the cloud’s rainy offerings and heaven’s light are equally important. Dull tree bark is brought into focus — sharpened — as tiny blemishes speak of its history and life to-date.

It can make the most ordinary of items extraordinary: a paperclip is transformed from matte to sparkling. Birdseed is no longer an array of browns and golds — it’s a field of grain shimmering under a vast, Midwest sky. Eyes are no longer a single color — they’re a kaleidoscope when the rays work their magic. And a downturned mouth is all but begging to smile once again as sunlight makes its way into our laugh lines — lines which remind us that where there was once a smile, another shall come in time. Lines which remind us of the people who helped create them.

Tonight, for the beauty of sunlight, the unique perspective it happily shares with us and the never-ending array of silver lining moments it can grant for both the common and the uncommon, I am thankful.