Life as a Reminder

I was sitting at my kitchen table watching my kids play on the deck and noticed the green buds springing forth on the trees.  I thought fondly of the warm day we were having, but felt a little tremor of remorse at the forecasted snow for this coming Thursday.  As in most places this year, Colorado is having a longer winter than normal.  My mother has turned my dad's office into a green room so that she can still have her garden without having to worry about all these unexpected drops in temperatures. I started thinking though how blessed we are to have seasons. 
I am the type of person who asks for change, but know and have seen how it is needed in my life. Very simplistically even so much as the changing of seasons is enough to rejuvenate me into something more as I have a new focus. I look forward to Winter as it cleanses the Earth in the white snow.  Air so cold that it nips your lungs, leaving you somehow feeling sharper, purer. I look forward to spring as the rain nurtures the dead ground and the sleeping trees and it is a joy to watch the plants and flowers wake from the ground, giving color to the stark whiteness grown accustomed to over the Winter. Summer for the heat and the ability to run outside at almost any time of day to play without worry or fear of the weather.  Fall is beautiful with all its colors and a reminder that although the end, it is not always the end, knowing all the seasons will roll around again.  After thinking of the cyclical nature of the seasons, I was reminded of Elder Uchtdorfs words at the last general conference: "Endings are not our destiny" He talked how naturally our body fights against ending like death because we do not understand them as our souls are aware our promise (when we live the gospel) are everlasting beginning.  Isn't that beautiful to know there is no end.  We are more than this life.  How easy is it to forget such a blessing! Man made time and we get so caught up in what we can do in our time, with our time, etc, but by keeping an eternal perspective we realize time implies and end and with God, there is no end, much like my favorite hymn "If You Could Hie to Kolob" states many times. 
I am currently reading the New Testament and have just read Doctrine and Covenants recently and always there are people asking for sign and prof of power and authority of prophets and the Lord, but can't you see them here everyday?  Look how even how the Lord blessed us with seasons, he reminds us ever three months or so, look, here is a new beginning.
Anytime I have one of these "ah ha" moments I like to apply it to my life. And just like the years, my life has traveled through many seasons and I feel blessed knowing I have an opportunity for all these new seasons and new beginnings.  I know often people equate their trials with the winter season and came to yet another realization or  simple reminder: even in our stormy season and the cold patches in life, we still have the same opportunity to be just as happy in winter as we do in summer.  Yes for some it is easier to be happy in the warm easy summer days, but we have the same opportunity to b happy in every season.  we were never destined to be miserable.  We chose what we get out of each season on our own.  and what a blessing when traversing through those cold Winter months to know in just a short while, a whole new beginning of change and birth awaits us.