March 01, 2006

March, at last

All month I kept saying to my students, "Can you believe it is STILL February?"

I think they were getting sick of me saying it.

So today they kept saying things like, "Hey, February is over! See, we told you it wouldn't last forever!"

March is a wonderful month. March will include spring break, a whole week when I can stay home by the fire with my Wonderful Smart Beautiful Daughter. March will include a four-day trip to the monastery, a long weekend of peace and quiet. March will include a conference trip to the Big Midwestern City that has a Great Art Institute and Two Baseball Teams, One of Which is Famous for Always Losing. Conferences are always great for meeting up with old friends, making new friends, learning new things, and exploring a city. March includes Saint Patrick’s Day, a day much celebrated in my part of the country, a day that brings back many happy childhood memories. March includes the vernal equinox, a time when the sun is positioned over the equator, a time when balance seems possible.

We will get snow in March, of course. Some of our biggest blizzards come this time of year. In March of 1993, we got four feet of snow in a 24-hour period. But in March, we will also start getting some warm weather, sunshine that will melt the snow pretty quickly.

And on an evening near the end of March, probably around the 26th or so, we will get a warm evening when I will walk outside my front door and hear the sound of spring peepers. And that's the sure sign of spring.

14 comments:

Yankee, Transferred said...

I love March! My daffodils are out!

Rana said...

I love March! I was born in March!

Dorcas (aka SingingOwl) said...

OOOh, yeah! Those peepers are my absolute favorite Spring-is-coming sound! Never heard them till moving up nort'.

J.K.F. said...

Congratulations on making it to March, jo(e). Another February can be ripped off of your calendar.

Jennifer (ponderosa) said...

thanks for this, i needed a reminder that winter will *end*!

listie said...

Yeah for March! Yeah for daughters coming home!

Anonymous said...

Well you've redeemed it from just being mud season for me.

Seeking Solace said...

I am so glad that March is here. I feel like we have turned a corner!

KM said...

I'm into March too -- but I celebrate it rather narcissistically as "the month of me" since I was born during March and so was my mother. March is not only the signal of spring: it's also the promise of summer... and that's what satisfies me the most. That it was 84 degrees today in this state helps immensely too! ;-) Enjoy both break and balance, jo(e). Am glad I found your blog.

Mieke said...

March is birthday month! Countdown to my 38th ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh that's right 38th birthday on the 28th. How did that happen? I am really only 26 but then suddenly I am 38. It's just silly. I am 26.

St. Casserole said...

Yippee! March has arrived!
Our birds are singing like Spring is here. Warm, temperate weather for us this week, too.

zelda1 said...

The thing about living in the South, we already have the spring peepers. We have birds all winter, Robins and such, but now the pretty song birds are coming home and are laying claim to the trees. I am so excited. This year is really the first time that I have heard them so clearly. Yesterday, I heard a mockingbird doing its round of different songs and it was as if he were right on my shoulder, and I looked for him, he was on top of the electric pole thing. These hearing aides are a godsend. Yes, I am hearing things I never heard before. I'm like you, I'm glad Feb. is over. Hip hip hooray.

Minoa said...

I remember living in City that has a Great Art Institute. I hope you get snow and not the negative fifty degree weather. That was always the worst. It's eighty degrees where I am now and I'm loving it. But I envy your closeness to the institute and to the museums ;)

Anonymous said...

March is good month. heavy snows still come, yet the dogwood are starting to stir.