Friday, October 24, 2008

Learning to Love the Nights

Yesterday was a wonderful day.

I wasn't perfect, but I had a nice day.

At the temple, I saw a couple of people who seemed like tourists. It was a son and his elderly mother visiting the temple for the first time. They were from somewhere in the UK.

Inside the temple, I began to contemplate the importance of night and day. Both the light and the darkness are important parts of life. Every month, whether it be serious pms, or hypermania, or whatever--every month I go through some pretty predictable phases. I'm either very energetic and all pistons are firing at once--so much so that I can hardly sleep because my brain is zipping along--

Or, I'm incredibly sad. I am tired. I am hopeless, etc.

I am hyperaware of what's happening with my body. It helps me to get through the various phases. If I'm sad, it's good to know when my period is going to start so I can temper my very real emotions with a little bit of outside knowledge about what's happening hormonally. It helps just knowing that I'm not really a horrid ugly person, but that my hormone levels have just dropped significantly and that they will begin to rise again when the period starts.

Last month, I began to clean the house the day before my period started. It was the first time in what seemed like the longest week ever that I had the energy to do anything, and I wanted to get something done!

So, back to night and day.

As I sat in the temple, contemplating the creation of night and day--I had a different thought.

Normally, I see the creation of night and day as a symbolic representation of our own capacity to choose right from wrong.

But yesterday, I began to see how day shimmers in comparison with night. I saw how night truly sets off the day.

Our life is made of peaks and valleys, but without the valleys, there would be no peaks.

If life were constantly a state of dusk or dawn, we would never appreciate the difference between a bright sunny day and a dark night.

There is beauty in the reality of the night. Night brings us to our knees. It is the time where we ask for strength, where we remember our Father. And after we have received our strength to get through the night, some of that strength carries us into the daylight. Suddenly, not only is life sunny and happy, but we have a reserve of power that carries us into the good times and makes us unstoppable.

The point is--embrace the nights for all that they give to us.

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