March Forth!...with a Spring in your step

If the month of March was a color, surely it would be yellow. The yellow of breezy, blowing boughs

"March Forsythia" photo by KLWood

of forsythia, the yellow of nodding, trumpeting daffodils, the yellow of the ever boldening sun, racing toward its Vernal Equinox and then onward in its steady pace of lengthening light.

If March had a slogan, it would be “March Forth!” March forth into the greening of the year. March forth, high-stepping across puddles and patches of itinerant ice. March forth with the power of the March wind to your back.

If March had a Facebook page on which it noted its “Relationship” status, I’m certain it would choose, “It’s Complicated.” One day stormy, one day calm. One day frigid, one day warm. One day clinging to winter, one day plunging into spring. Mercurial, thy name is March.

John Philip Sousa, Nov 6, 1854-MARCH 6, 1932

If March was music it would, of course, be composed by the “March King,” John Philip Sousa. Proud, loud, and infectious, spurring us to put down our laptops and smartphones, and march around the kitchen table, banging our pot lids and beating our spoons, heads high, smiles wide. 

If March was a Bible verse, it might be, “And the lion shall lie down with the lamb.” After all, we’ve

all heard the saying, “March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb,” right? True enough, except there are no lions lying down with lambs in the Bible. Not directly, anyway. This is one of the many misquoted/misremembered verses of the Good Book. Isaiah 11:6, “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.” Thus endeth our Bible Study lesson for the day.

If March was a mathematical symbol, it would be Pi. Pi the irrational, Pi the infinite possibility, Pi the unpredictable. Perhaps that is why March 14, is National Pi Day! I don’t know about you, but I’m going to bake an Apple “Pi” on the 14th, complete with a Pi symbol-shaped steam vent in the top crust.

"Running European Hare" photo by Malene Thyssen per Wikimedia Commons

If March was an animal, it would be the March Hare. Heard the English idiom, “Mad as a March Hare”?  (Remember Alice in Wonderland?) Seems European hares mate primarily during the month of March and go just a wee bit crazy in the process, jumping straight up into the air for no apparent reason, boxing with each other, darting around erratically. Of course, basketball fans may recognize this as “March Madness,” but that’s another whole genus of animal altogether.

If March was a poem, it would be by William Wordsworth. (Oh, what a wonderful name for a man so full of worthy words!) In his, “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud,” its first verse proclaims:

“I wandered lonely as a cloud 

That floats on high o'er vales and hills, 

When all at once I saw a crowd, 

A host, of golden daffodils; 

Beside the lake, beneath the trees, 

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.”

"Mama's Daffodil, 2018" by KL Wood

God bless you, March. You boisterous, bodacious, blustery, marvel of a month. And in this year, of 2018, you are heralded with full moons bookending your first and final days. By the almanac they may be called the Worm Moon and the Blue Moon, but for me they are the Lion Moon and the Lamb Moon. That bridge, spanning the seasonal chasm of winter to spring. Not a month to just “get through,” but one on which to stand high and look around, feeling the March wind blow the cobwebs away!

Thanks for stopping by...y'all come back, now!

Kate