Sunshine on my shoulders

There is a song that has defined my life. The song is called “Sunshine on My Shoulders,” and it was written by John Denver. It was the theme song to a television show in the early 70s called simply “Sunshine.” The series only lasted three months, but it impacted me in so many ways and has become a theme to my life.As the television series opened, the words rang out, “Sunshine on my shoulders, makes me happy. Sunshine in my eyes can make me cry.” The series opened with a dad carrying his daughter on his shoulders running through a field of daisies in the sunshine.I wanted a dad like that. I wanted to be that little girl cherished and carried around on someone’s shoulders in a field of daisies. In the series, he was the girl’s stepfather. Her mother had died, so he was raising her alone. What love.It’s funny how even small things in the eyes of a little girl with big dreams become large enough for a lifetime of memories. When interviewed, Denver said that he wrote the song while in Minnesota on a dreary, early spring day when the skies were gray and all he wanted was a ray of sunshine as he knew that “… sometimes just the sun itself can make you feel good.”“Sunshine on My Shoulders” was on the B side of a 45-record with the A side song being “I’d Rather be a Cowboy,” another hit by Denver. But as with many things in life, the B side song became more important than the A side.And it is the side B of my life that has taught me about love.My dad loved me. That was something I never doubted. But my life didn’t go as planned. At least not my plans. The little girl in the show had lost her mom, I lost my dad.My parents divorced, my dad moved to Florida, and I was left with only a Disneyland dad. The kind you visit who spoils you, but really isn’t a dad to you at all.Flip the record now to the side B song of my life.My mom remarried, and I became Don’s daughter. I had a new dad, and though he wasn’t carrying me on his shoulders and running through a field of daisies, he was there for me, as a dad should be. Just like the girl in the television series being raised by her step-dad, someone chose to love me.Don took us on picnics, cross country skiing in the Metroparks and helped me build a xylophone for music class. He took care of me when I burned my eyeball with the curling iron as a teenager. He paid my rent so I could live in an apartment in college, and welcomed me with open arms when that didn’t work out and I needed to move back home.Don is still my dad today, and loves me through all of life’s ups and downs. I guess that is the side B song of my life. The sunshine on my shoulders that I have always longed for, I have from a man who didn’t have to love me, but chose to anyway.And like a ray of sunshine, just a father’s love alone can make you feel good.Sunshine on my shoulders does make me happy after all.