The Ides of March

By -

We are on the downhill slope now. Despite the fact that it is a blizzard outside my window, I refuse to give in to the urge to crawl into bed and stay there until spring. Well, maybe I will crawl in for just a few minutes.

Every year March manages to bring me down, with its relentless zig and zag from winter to thaw and back again. This March is no different, except for the fact that everything else is different. This prairie city has a thaw, a beautiful glimpse of dripping spring when kids strip off their coats and believe they can have picnics in the back yard just for today. Later that night the snow blows in again, the puddles freeze and the temperature drops to -21. Convincing everyone to put on their snow pants and scarves this morning brought no one any joy, as the novelty of playing the snow is long past in this cantankerous month of March.

So, what can you do? Focus on the positive. Blue sky days do still outnumber the grey ones, and spring will come because it does every single year without fail. Children will still strip off their coats and insist on wearing capri pants well before the weather really recommends that fashion choice. Eventually the snow will melt. The rivers will thaw and sparkle, the ground will turn green, the leaves will unfurl. We will get to experience the rolling wheat fields, the grasslands, the lakes. The outdoors will call to us, and we will throw off the fleece blanket, uncurl from the couch and answer it. Soon.

 
“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” ~ Albert Einstein




Comments

  1. Island Minwing15 March 2013 at 14:14

    Beautiful blue sky! Spring is slowly coming our way but winter will probably surprise us with a snowfall just when we're imagining warmth again. You'll have fun exploring your new surroundings when the ice melts. I think of you often.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Grand Manan

By -
Image
There is a place that has stuck with me for more than 20 years. Not once have I been able to return there, but I see it in my head as clearly as any spot in my world. It is an island off an island. Along its shore sits an abandoned lighthouse slowly falling into ruin, shingles beaten grey by the howling Atlantic winds, the smothering Fundy fog, the salt spray and the endless, unrelenting neglect of the years. I always wanted to go across the bay to that island, but it never happened. So I just sat on the back deck of my friend's place drinking cups of tea and gazing across the chop of waves to the island. I don't even know what it was called. This is really not a story of an island or a lighthouse, but that lighthouse seems forever linked in my mind with my friend. If it were not for her, I probably would never have seen it. Perhaps I would never have taken the rough little ferry across from Blacks Harbour to North Head, but because I knew a girl from Grand Manan, I had a rea
Read more

I resolve never to make resolutions

By -
Image
Let it be resolved that we will never again make New Year's resolutions based on what we saw in the flyers this week. It boggles my mind that every single January, the gurus of marketing ensure that all of the key words are hit in every advertorial, every flyer, every promotional email. You know the ones. Renew! Refresh! Detox! Organize! Purge! Declutter! Clean! New new new! New you, too! Ads for treadmills and magic bullets, miraculous shoe racks and plastic totes promise to make everything easier, cleaner, healthier, fresh and new. I actually find myself getting sucked into articles telling me how to detoxify with a shot of apple cider vinegar every morning and a cup of turmeric tea before bed, and nothing in between. So down the hatch with the vinegar. Drink that glass of water first thing in the morning, and follow it with ten minutes of meditation. Write down goals for the new year in a beautiful, pure white journal. But for heaven's sake do not call it a resolution,
Read more

Blending in is overrated

By -
Image
So, that year is over. Honestly, 2016 was not my favourite year from a news perspective, but then one of the promises I've made to myself is to read less news in the new year. Or at least to seek out legitimate news, which is a bit like finding gold ingot buried in the compost heap. In a personal sense, a year of upheaval has led us from the prairies to the mountains, to a place where it seems anything can and often does happen. Reflections on our new home place? It seems blessed with an endless supply of creative anachronism, and not just in the sense that yes, some people actually dress as though they exist in a whole different century, or reality. There is a sense of optimism here, despite the proliferation of homelessness and addiction that also seems to exist. It is a place a bit outside of time, where conscientious objectors live happily alongside excruciatingly cheery Australian ski buffs, stores have "sliding scale" pricing and focus hard on natural, organi
Read more