Thoughts On March

I love turning the calendar to a brand new month. Somehow, it feels like a fresh start and a chance to do the things I didn't get around to during the previous month. Those To-Do lists never seem to be finished. With being away from home nearly two weeks in February, my list has several items waiting for me. 

I can't claim March as one of my favorite months of the year. In fact, it would probably rank very far down on my list. The winter dregs are in it even though that's tempered with hints of a springtime to come before the month ends. The crocus blooms popping up through a snow-covered ground bring joy and hope for more to come in the next weeks. 

Now, is a good time to write your thoughts and feelings about this third month of the year to add to your Family Stories book. What special activities did you do in March? Does this month bring memories of Lent, St. Patrick's Day, Easter or any other religious holiday? Did your family eat corned beef and cabbage every St. Pat's Day? Did you have a special outfit for Easter Sunday if it fell in March? What about the March winds? Kite flying time! 

Here's a short piece I wrote back in 2008 when March arrived. 

Musing On March

Most people know that old saying "If March comes in like a lion, it will go out like a lamb." And it works in reverse, as well. 

Today in Kansas, March slipped in like a sweet little lamb. She brought clear skies, sunshine and a temperature to reach 68 by mid-afternoon. What bliss after one of the worst winters Kansas has had in a long, long time. 

Along with all those good things, March winds are going to blow today. They'll whip through the trees, which are still recovering from the devastation of the December ice storm. The wind will roll across the Flint Hills with glee, bending the prairie grasses like pieces of cooked pasta. The wind will skip across rivers, stir up the sandtraps on golf courses, create havoc with hairdos and swirl dirtpiles when found. It doesn't matter a bit, however, because those south winds bring warm air from the gulf to our state. So, blow wind, blow. Send kites dipping and dancing through the sky.

Our town has a St. Patrick's Day celebration that grows larger every year. A Blarney Breakfast, races for runners and walkers, and plenty of green beer highlight the day in an area near the Kansas State University campus. Irish music blares through loudspeakers, and on that particular Saturday, everybody is Irish! As for me, I'm Irish every day--at least half my heritage is from that green, green land. 

This year, we also celebrate Easter in March, a holiday tht is both religious and commercial. Whether you celebrate one part of both, it's an important part of the year. For me, Holy Week reigns, and I plan the rest of my activities around church services on Thursday, Friday and Sunday of that week. But I love the commercial part, too, the many decorations and early spring flowers, trees budding, lambs births--all those things that tell of rebirth and awakening. But don't all those things stem from the Easter story of the Resurrection? For me, they do. 

One more thing March may bring is another snowstorm or possibly another ice storm. Kansas almost always gets snow at least once in this third month of the year. I remember one bad ice storm that frosted trees and shrubs in the middle of March one year. The best part about March snow or ice is that it rarely lasts more than one day. 

Welcome March!