Spring Fever

                I appreciate the sunshine coming back after a dark winter.  I have several responses to the increased sunshine, particularly a great increase in energy and vitality.  I feel alive again when I see the snow and ice gone from the streets and life beginning again.  My daffodils, which are planted right in front of the windows on the south side of the house, are about three inches out of the ground.  The new life assures me that there is a God in heaven who is control of all things.

                Anchorage has enjoyed beautiful sunshine every day for the past week, and I have spring fever.  I am drawn to work in my yard and gardens and want to be digging in the soil.  I am almost convinced to go outside to work in the yard - and then I remember the temperature.  Our highest temperature for the week was 32 degrees with our lowest temperature being zero.  Yes, zero degrees!  In reality, at those temperatures I do not even want to be outside, let alone gardening – but the sunshine calls to my soul.

                The best I could do this week was to purchase some yarn to tie back the curtains in the family room and to set up my table and grow light in anticipation of planting some seeds soon.  I have also spent some time looking for pots to transplant my house plants.

                Spring has a way of affecting all life.  Plants come back to life, and animals have new babies.  People wash their cars and clean their houses.  Everyone wants to do away with the grime and dirt of the winter.  I find it almost comical that parking lots all over town have a solid layer of gravel on top of the pavement.  I am sure it is still there because no one knows when spring will really come.  Ten or fifteen years ago we received three feet of snow on St. Patrick’s Day so we know anything can happen at this point.

                I am amazed at the effect that sunshine has on my body and spirit!  I react to the increasing sunshine the same way every year.  I actually do not like darkness – whether physical or spiritual – and my spirit is not as bright during the winter.  I want to hibernate and sleep the winter away.  I believe light affects everyone and everything in one way or another.

                A former President of the Anchorage Alaska Temple made an interesting comment about light and darkness.  He said that he noticed a difference in how people acted in the winter as opposed to summer.  He noticed that people stood around and visited more in the winter months when it is cold and dark outside; then he noticed how people came to the temple in the warm, sunny months but left the building as soon as possible in order to be outside.  This is probably true of any building, but it is very obvious in the temples because of all the light – spiritual and physical – found in there.

                Our Savior, even Jesus Christ, is the Light of the World.  He “lighteth every man that cometh into the world (John 1:9, Doctrine and Covenants 93:2).  His light fills the “immensity of space.”  His light “giveth life to all things” and is “the law by which all things are governed.”  It is also “the light that quickeneth” our understanding (Doctrine and Covenants 88:6-13, 41).  When I come to life in the spring I am simply reacting to the sunshine and warmth planned and prepared by the Savior of all mankind.