The Proverbial Lamb and Lion |
What memories do you have from your childhood about March? Were there any foods your mother always made something in that month? Did you celebrate any holidays, family birthdays or other important events? What about the kind of clothes you needed during these 31 days? I feel family stories popping up here.
Try to include many active verbs. Let your reader 'see' what you're writing about. For further triggers to your memories of March, I have included the result of this exercise when I did it several years ago.
Hoping your memories and exercise might produce a brand new piece of writing you can use in a writing project or a stand-alone you can submit to an editor. These exercises are meant as practice but also to aid in coming up with more than the exercise alone.
Musing on March (written about 2014)
By Nancy Julien Kopp
Today in Kansas, March slipped in like a sweet little lamb. She brought clear skies, sunshine and 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 sand traps on golf courses, create havoc with hairdos and swirl dirt piles 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 that 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 of them 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, allowing my children to have an extra day of Spring Break. The best part about March snow or ice is that it rarely lasts more than one day.
Welcome, March!
March is a time of loss.Family members close relatives left the world leaving mourners behind.
ReplyDeleteMy father passed away on the 15th and we lost a dearest uncle , a public popular leader of the Kashmiri people who are even now struggling for freedom. On the positive side March brings a pleasant change in the weather, the advent of Spring , the beginning of the new academic year, new books , stories, new knowledge .The best I love about March is the excitement of reading new books meeting new classmates and learning new things... maybe wear lighter clothes feel fresh and free..it is the nature's month of bright changeThe 23rd of March is the National Republic Day of Pakistan when the resolution was passed at Lahore in 1940 the Declaration of a new country to be formed...a smart elegant well led parade is held to commemorate the day...a great historic event...
Thank you for sharing this with us. We all have different memories and experiences during this month of March. I enjoyed reading yours.
DeleteThank you
ReplyDeletehttps://www.nanowrimo.org/participants/anjum-wasim-dar/novels/abbottabad-a-hill-station-that-was
https://anjumwasimdar.wordpress.com/
ReplyDeletemy memoir blog