This year, instead of deciding on what I want to try to modify in my life all at once and hoping I can stick it out for the whole 364, I am trying to make monthly resolutions. I have a lot more opportunities to get back on the wagon this way. Also, more opportunities to change wagons. Or repaint my wagon. Or whatever.
Which is good, because this winter I have fallen off every wagon I tried to get on. Situations in my work kept changing, and as I struggled to adapt, effects rippled out to the rest of my life.
And it’s been a cold, snowy winter.
I am committed to seasons. I love the variety of them, all the different types of days I get to experience. I appreciate the austere and intricate beauties of winter. But I am also a huge lover of growing things, and by February I begin to miss grass and moss and leaves on the trees a lot. And I miss the sunshine, obviously. I get worse and worse at going out after dark. I feel as though I have less time in my days, but of course I have the same 24 hours as ever. I can become grumpy and resentful about winter, and frustrated that spring takes so many months to come.
In the past I have been unfair to March. This morning I was thinking about my resolutions and what I want to do in this month, and it occurred to me that March really doesn’t get a lot of attention. I feel like I always want to skip over March, and I think western cannon sort of does too. So this year, I am going to try to pay a lot of attention to the particular character of March. I want to try to love it for exactly what it is.
This year, I will show March I care about it by writing it a poem for each of it’s days.
***
March 1st Poem
Today I bought pussy willow
branches at the market
They have had them
since February but
that seemed too soon
March is a good time
for soft grey buds
I went a
little wild
and bought daffodils
too
Huzzah! Love to see you posting again, and I like the idea of March poems 🙂 I don’t have a character for March right now, outside of “wet and icky and cold.” I am intrigued to see what poems you write, and maybe finding new sides of the month.
I am celebrating March too, in a small way, by reading about Women’s History, as it is Women’s History month. I am not sure how I feel about having one month for Women’s History out of twelve, but on the other hand it’s nice because instead of thinking “ugh, March,” I am thinking, “cool, March, I am learning about Women’s History”.