Spring came

Yesterday, the weather was beautiful. Today, it was still pretty warm. To celebrate the daylight and the warm temperature (probably almost 60!), I took a long walk around my neighborhood, visited a couple of my favorite falls and creeks, and just enjoyed being able to walk outside without a coat or sweater or long pants! I saw the first few flowers of spring, and it was brilliant to see the colors come up from the dark brown of the ground. I am amazed at how green the grass is, even after having been covered in snow all winter, whereas the grass in the South is always completely dead this time of year and struggling to come back to life.
The coming of spring also meant the end of spring break and the return of lots and lots of work. I have been incredibly productive over the last 2 days though, making up for doing no math over the break :). It's amazing, I understand so much this week, maybe I should take mental breaks more often!
I've been thinking over the past couple of days, in addition to math, about our thoughts. Thinking about thinking. Hmm, it's a vicious circle. Now, I'm thinking about thinking about thinking. Gah. Must stop. The point, I was contemplating the relationship of the mind to the spirit, and so our thoughts to our spirit. Abdu'l-Baha, in Some Answered Questions, gives the relationship:
"But the mind is the power of the human spirit. Spirit is the lamp; mind is the light which shines from the lamp. Spirit is the tree, and the mind is the fruit. Mind is the perfection of the spirit and is its essential quality, as the sun's rays are the essential necessity of the sun."
So our spirit gives the light of the mind, so our thoughts would come from the spirit? How much power do we have over our thoughts? We can choose the experiences we have, and what thoughts we put into our minds at times. We can also try to not dwell on certain thoughts. But, otherwise where do our thoughts come from? As we try to perfect our spirits, by turning towards God, praying, studying, and trying to put God's teachings into action, that would then direct our minds toward more spiritual rather than strictly earthly thoughts, I think. What I wonder is can God help us to focus our thoughts in a certain way? I feel like the answer is yes but no at the same time. We can ask God to help us purify our spirits and direct our thoughts, but then there's also the free will part of man that we can choose to make certain decisions including what we think about. So where is the balance? Just one of the questions that doesn't really have a complete answer, but something I'll continue to reflect on.