Teresa Hirst

I was in my bathroom in the morning a little depressed. I had cried the night before and cried again in the morning. Nothing really was wrong; I just felt oppression from four days of rain and 60 degree temperatures, which made it feel like everything was wrong. That’s not depression in a clinical way but a lack of sunshine kind of way.

I missed summer. One day last week the temperature hit 90 degrees. One day of summer vacation, and then it was gone. All the other days felt like late spring or early fall.

You would think I was worried about making sure we got enough vitamin D stored up for the long winter ahead. But I was more worried about the summer vegetables that hadn’t had time to even think about ripening in the garden. I’m still plucking spring peas while I wish for red tomatoes and prolific zucchini.

Then I read this,

Therefore may God grant unto you, my brethren, that ye may begin to exercise your faith unto repentance, that ye begin to call upon his holy name, that he would have mercy upon you; . . .Yea, humble yourselves, and continue in prayer unto him.

and then this,

Cry unto him over the crops of your fields, that ye may prosper in them. Cry over the flocks of your fields, that they may increase. (see Alma 34:17-27 in the Book of Mormon)

And so I knelt in front of the window in my bathroom where I could see tomatoes with barely a hint of orange and shrunken zucchini, and I prayed for our garden.

And then the sunlight filtered in, and it stayed all day.