Pack Creek Ranch, San Juan County, Utah
The last week in February 2024
SYMPTOMS
A man I know well is coping with an unexpected early onset of a health condition.
No, he is not ill or depressed.
He is feeling very well and up-pressed, actually.
His condition is self-diagnosed.
No medical doctor’s appointment is required.
He has experienced the symptoms of his condition many times.
Even looked forward to the self-administered cure.
The problem – if it can be called that – is that the condition has usually arisen in late March or certainly in April – but never in February. And his state of being, caught him by surprise.
Why February? Usually, an in-between time when Winter still the operative season – cold, snow, windy, long dark nights. He doesn’t expect much of February. But this year February was the mildest weather month in memory. Clear skies, warm sunny days, no snow in the valley, no mud on the walking trails – and an unambiguous sense of more light.
As a result, the man I know is not sitting around his fireplace at dawn, but out on his porch, with his face turned toward the sunrise like an old turtle on a rock. He is feeling lazy and content.
Usually, at this hour, the man is thinking about all the things he needs to do – and even making a list. But not now – maybe tomorrow or the day after that. He doesn’t care.
By now you must have guessed that the man has spring fever.
In February.
One symptom is the search for anything around his house that is green – one blade of grass would do – but it’s too soon.
A willow showing the first furry catkins? No, too soon.
A migratory bird returning? Not one.
The yearning for Spring will not bring it on.
The man’s biological clock seems to have gone haywire.
It’s called the suprachiasmatic nucleus – tucked in the man’s hypothalamus – and it conveys information about the length of a day to the pineal gland.
So, it’s going to be a long-lasting case of spring-fever.
Addressed best by poets and musicians – the bringers of existential light.
So?
Let it be.