The Light and The Life

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Most of our laboratories that involve live materials (except for microbiology) are finished for the semester, and as usual, I’m trying to save money by keeping things alive. Last year, I managed to keep two cacti, a potted palm tree, and some pond scum mystery mix alive for the entire year despite our summers and only lost a few ferns. I moved them to a place near my desk in the lab where we have lights mounted beneath the cabinets for light and aerate them weekly so they get oxygen, and I noticed a benefit both to them and to myself. While the plants have thrived and grown and survived, I noticed a lift in my mood, and some things that weighed heavily on my mind and heart until recently finally seem like things I can carry well. It does appear that in more ways than one light improves the quality of life.

Years ago while in graduate school, I attended a seminar on light’s effects on mood. The speaker’s research appears to have been corroborated since then, and studies show that “horrible, wholesome sunshine” affects the body in far more ways than melanin and melatonin production. Sunshine is better because it includes the full width and breadth of wavelengths, but apparently even these bulbs in my office emit the wavelengths that lift my mood. After a good day hiking, despite being tired, I feel better quite simply in the evening because I got some of that sunshine. A few Sundays ago, I went with a friend of mine to a park after she visited the congregation of my Faith with me, and the sunshine had positive effects on her daughter’s cold symptoms.

Of course, light is essential to life on earth. Without it, plants cannot exhale enough oxygen to sustain the animal population and their own respiratory needs. In past semesters, my pond scum mix failed due to lack of light. Ultimately, even these tiny mixtures of protozoa depend on photosynthetic organisms who serve both to oxygenate as well as feed the rest of the mixture. The plants, including my palm, need sunlight, and I can see new growth from the ferns and palm in this new lamp. Even the moss is not only still alive but thriving, and that’s saying something in Vegas!

Both my plants and I thrive because we draw near to the light. Likewise in our lives, we benefit in physical means by associating with light, and in a larger sense we really thrive when we draw near to The Light. I know a lot of people who are “looking for love in all the wrong places” or happiness, or health, or companionship from the wrong sources or people because they erroneously think that the benefits of light can be found in the darkness. They seek wickedness in doing iniquity and draw near to the darkness hoping to reap the benefits of the light. Then, they wonder why they feel bad and do the walk of shame and feel unsatisfied, and they often turn to booze and drugs and debutantery in order to escape guilt and force themselves into a happier mood. I have never really understood why people turn to alcohol, which is a depressant, as a “cure” for their dejection and depression. Sunshine and worship do far more to lift the mood and lighten our burdens.

Only by drawing nearer to the light can you benefit from its positive energetics. Light is a form of energy, and it works in syncopation with other energies of the body and soul. Just as in plants, if we want to turn waste into work, if we want to have energy that gives life, and if we want to store up good things for the eventide of our mortal experience, we depend on light of specific wavelengths. In fact, some kinds of light damage plants, but they are lights that we cannot see. So much affects us in a potentially negative way of which we are not always aware, and if we are not careful, what looks like a light might actually burn us more than it helps us grow. Light gives us what we need to survive, to thrive, and to have life in all of its abundance. Even fruit doesn’t ripen correctly unless hit with light! As we draw closer to the Light, it gives us Life and improves our Lives and helps us bear Fruit. He came that we might have life and have it more abundantly.