Photo courtesy of Jim Heins
Last year at this time, Friday the 13th to be exact, here in Vermont we felt the jaws of lockdown close. The date is notable. (http://lindafreemanfitness.com/2020/03/30/coronavirus-friday-13th-new-normal-march-2020/) For a moment it looked like SUPERSTITION was the monster. But more and more we heard the word SCIENCE.
Fast forward to a new year. I will avoid the quicksands of politics, social reform, education and finance, and simply say it appears that things are looking up. It is an anniversary this month. There is much to mourn and many lives and losses to be honored. Lest we forget. It appears that the effects of this pandemic and the shifting challenges that inevitably lie ahead will serve as constant reminders of a time that begs definition.
Here we know to drop what we are doing and head outdoors when there’s a “bluebird day”
Here in Vermont, March can be an odd month. As many areas of this country are already skipping into spring, we don’t know if it’s winter or an early mud season, a brief thaw or a hard freeze. Notions of change tease. Maybe there are stirrings of spring cleaning or stolen hours of spring skiing. Maybe we are off our rhythms, a little unsettled, a little off balance; or maybe we can feel the energy beginning to flow along with the sap.
The month of March is full of promise. In a few days, we will set our clocks forward, “spring ahead” and. for a while at least, we will marvel at the longer evenings of daylight. (and for some of us, we will continue to head into the woods with headlamps for the first pup walk of the day) Dinners will get later and mornings will arrive more quickly.
At 5:37 a.m. Saturday 3/20 we make it official, and welcome the Spring Equinox.
Over the final weekend of March, Passover and Palm Sunday will share the full moon.
Oh yes, there are more. Many more. But here are a few of my favorites:
3-1 National Peanut Butter Lovers Day
3-9 National Get-Over-It Day
3-13 National Good Samaritan Day (hmmmmm perhaps darkly appropriate? – but then there’s also 3-13 Open-An-Umbrella-Indoors Day)
3-17 and who could miss St Patrick’s Day? (or perhaps we should – green beer and masking might be a challenge)
3-21 here’s one: National Common Courtesy Day
3-30 National Virtual Vacation Day (wow – where did that come from?)
3-31 and not to be missed: National Little Red Wagon Day
What, you may ask, is Little Red Wagon Day? It is a day in which to celebrate memories in the making and ones already made. How much do you love this?
PAUSE
As we note this anniversary, may we ask ourselves “What are we learning? What is worth fighting for? What can we let go?” Will we carry forward some of what is good such as the recognition that connection, time, gratitude, compassion, creativity and generosity are indeed values that we need and can access? Can we functionally integrate activism with cooperation? Does hope underpin our character?
“Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, But the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.” Vaclav Havel
Anniversary: celebration, recognition, remembrance, keeping, honoring, observance and, beautifully, triumph. We cannot overlook the opposite: lament and mourning. But, may this anniversary make sense.