It’s snowing again. A couple days of nice weather and we’re back to the winter weather advisories. Disappointing. But it is good to see the days remaining light longer—promise of things to come. Today is a bit unique, periods of rain interspersed with periods of falling snow.

I’m sorry to say I did my annual spring thing this year—again. I totally forgot to turn my clock ahead when the time to do so came around. I was saved by being an hour late for my day’s activities by an email that came to remind me of the national “spring forward” custom. Unfortunately, the reminder came a bit late to be totally effective and I was twenty minutes late for my fist event of the day. That happens every year. I suppose I’ve never really grasped the need to change time, if that is, indeed, what we think we’re doing. I believe we think we are controlling time but I think it's more that the sun is controlling us.

In reading this over, I am reminded of a characteristic of mine and that is how much I am controlled by the sun. I wake up with the dawning of the sun and tend to get sleepy when it disappears for the day. I get up earlier in the summer than I do in the winter and I’m more alert and active on sunny days than cloudy ones. The influence the sun has on me was made very evident on one occasion years ago. I was at a party one night and had stayed quite late. It was about 2:00 AM when I left and I was scheduled to be in a town sme 130 miles away later that day. I decided to skip trying to get some sleep for I knew I would have a terrible time getting up and on the road later. Instead, I began my journey immediately over country roads with which I was familiar.

All went well for a while and then I began to get sleepy—really sleepy. I felt it was foolhardy to continue on that way, so I pulled over in a small country town, leaned the car seat back, settled down and went to sleep. When I awoke it was still dark and I was still tired, but when I pulled out of the town faint rays of dawn shone in the east. In a short time, the sun lit my world. I immediately woke up. It was fantastic, as if the returning light of day reached inside me and activated a corresponding luminescence within me, lighting every corner of me being and bringing energy and awareness with it.

Ever since that experience, I have been aware of the influence of the sun upon me. And so I like long summer days of light and warmth and I rejoice in spring and feel rather sad and melancholy in the fall. Spring overflows with new life, not only that which emerges from the warming earth but that which is created magically within me. It’s especially evident today, with sunshine alternating with snow showers. I feel that somehow the suns is in a contest for supremacy and is, bit by bit, winning the battle. It fills me with a sense of wonder, waiting and watching for the new adventure and discovery that I feel will come my way. I feel that way now, and spring has not yet begun.