Sunny Podcast #2 – Rebecca Pelayo: Keeping the light within…
How do we keep living with light when we leave the island where the sun shines almost every day?
In the second episode of Sunny Podcasts, I speak with Rebecca Pelayo, an architect and artist from France, who spent several years living on Crete. She shares her story of how the Mediterranean sun became a source of energy, inspiration, and inner calm.
We talk about returning to life in a different climate, the changes that come with new natural rhythms, and how to keep the light within – even when the sky turns grey. It’s a warm, reflective conversation about the glow that stays with us.
Podcast by Ania D. – Sunforlife.info
In this second episode of Sunforlife.info Sunny Podcasts, I reconnect with Rebecca Pelayo, an architect, creative spirit, and former islander of Crete, who, like me, recently left the island after years of living under its bright Mediterranean sun.
We talk about the contrast between Crete and her new home in France, the feeling of stepping away from light into softer seasons, and what it means to carry the memory of sunlight within. Rebecca shares how the Cretan sun shaped her health, her creativity, and even the way she radiates warmth today. What happens when we leave the Mediterranean sun behind?
Can we still “live with light” in darker climates? And what lessons does the sun give us that stay with us wherever we go?
Listen to the full episode here:
When the summer of Crete ends
Rebecca and I both left Crete within weeks of each other. After years of waking up to cicadas, swimming in the Sea of Crete, and feeling the warmth of the Mediterranean light, stepping away was like leaving one body and entering another. Her new home in France is green, lush, and full of rivers instead of the sea. Meals are richer, the air cooler, and the sky less predictable. “There are no cicadas, no waves, no Greek songs,” she says. “The contrast was threatening, and in the beginning it was difficult.” The absence of light shaped her mood deeply, bringing a kind of melancholy the French poet Baudelaire once called spleen. Yet Rebecca learned to sit with it, to welcome it as part of change, and to wait for brighter days.
The meaning of sunlight
When we talk about the sun in Crete, it’s never just “weather.” For Rebecca, it was a daily companion, a blessing, a pulse that moved through her body and the island itself. “It ripened the olives, transformed them into golden oil, and ran through my veins,” she remembers. Two weeks without sunlight in France reminded her of how essential this companion had been. Its absence reshaped her mood; its presence brought relief. The sun in Crete was powerful, constant, and formative. “I miss its power,” she says. “The Greek sun gave me warmth and color, inside and out.”
Creating light in new ways
In France, Rebecca has created new rituals. Instead of swimming daily, she now spends long hours outdoors walking, cycling, gardening, painting, and reading. “I spend almost 80% of my time outside,” she shares, “and this way I still receive my daily dose of light.” As an architect and creative, she also finds herself bringing brightness indoors. Surrounded by green trees and blooming roses, she uses vivid tones, flowers, and colours to keep her spaces alive with warmth. Light, she has learned, is not only outside – it can also be created within.
Lessons from the sun
Living under the Mediterranean sky and then letting it go has taught Rebecca profound lessons. “When there is too much sun, we protect ourselves. When there is not enough, we seek it out. The gift of the Cretan sun is something I now carry in my skin, in my spirit, and I can share it with others.” Her words echo a thought by Henry Miller: “One has the choice to let the light in or to keep the shutters closed.” Even in France, with less sun, she chooses to open the shutters, literally and symbolically, and to let the light enter her life, her family, and her work.
What we take from this journey
Leaving Crete meant leaving behind cicadas, sea, and Mediterranean brightness, and finding new rhythms in greener landscapes.
For Rebecca, the sun was never just weather, but a daily companion that shaped health, mood, and creativity.
In France, she created new rituals: long walks, gardening, painting, and surrounding herself with colour to keep her connection with light.
The Cretan sun left a gift, warmth, radiance, and a sense of inner light that she continues to carry and share.
Light is not only outside; it can also be cultivated within and passed on to others.
Light to carry forward
Rebecca’s story reminds us that the sun lives not only in the sky but also in us. Leaving Crete was not the end of living with light; it was the beginning of finding new ways to nurture it. Her reflections encourage us to open the shutters, even on grey days, and to keep spaces bright with warmth, memory, and creativity.
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Rebecca Pelayo
Meet Rebecca Pelayo, a French artist-architect who divides her time between France, Greece and Madagascar. For the past five years, Crete has been her home port, the island where the Mediterranean sun became a source of energy, protection, and inspiration. This luminous companion gave her the strength to face winters back in France. Today, she shares her story of life shaped by sunlight.