March is not for the faint- hearted. You’ve had January and February to get in shape, so grab a red pen and a current calendar. Coming on the heels of usually 28 days for month two, March seems to stretch on interminably. It always has four full weeks and spills over to a few extra days as it tries to wind down before soggy April. In 2022, March began with a Mardi Gras Parade moving to Ash Wednesday for the main observance of the month, Lent. For some of us, that cover of religious preparation is in the background of all activities.
Nature brings its own blessing to the month. A final freeze may brush one random day; however, a promise of change is in the air. The day defining a new season happens on the 20th. Daffodils, anemones, ranuculas, and hyacinths emerge after a winter underground. Pansies and snapdragons are at their prime and camellias in bloom flow into azaleas while doves begin singing, “Who cooks for you?” In Texas, fill your car to take a ride past Katy to oooh and aah over bluebonnets that cause roadsides to look like they are covered with purple shadows.
Mid-month offers three gifts. One has lost its edge because schedules seem to have cut being in school for 3.14 – pi day, that one math day calling for a sweet celebration.This focus gets ignored because of the overarching arrival of SPRING BREAK. Families disappear to all points of the globe, while, I assume, other groups choose to come south. On the 17th enough are still in town to remember St. Patrick even if just providing a moment for honoring distant relatives, wearing the green and taking part in a little riotous living.
And then I with others wrap up with March Madness. Because I graduated from a one sport high school, basketball is the only “ball” activity that I have the vaguest idea of what is happening on the court. Another attraction is it is played indoors and one can even take a pillow to make comfortable an unforgiving bleacher that calls for a straight back. I have already clipped my bracket and picked a few favorites, knowing full well that upsets are bound to happen.
This March has one more blessing. The 31st, that final day of a long month, is Easter, the ultimate day of new beginnings. The Thursday before, my church has a Service of Shadows with the Christ Candle solemnly and silently being carried out of the chapel to leave us with memories of coming to that point. Sunday morning that same candle leads a procession of robed choristers who are filling the sanctuary with exultant praise, proving each day was needed to arrive at the perfect moment of celebration. Not many months can offer such an arc!.
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