MARCH

 

Daffodils like 'Love Call', sometimes called jonquils or narcissus, are the birth flowers for March. Because they often bloom in early spring, they symbolize new birth, beginnings, happiness and joy. --HGTV website

I also read somewhere that daffodils symbolize hope. So take your pick: new birth--beginnings--happiness--joy--hope.

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You probably noticed that the calendar page changed. And in just a little over two weeks, we'll say "It's spring!" 

Most people I've talked to are hoping the lamb-like opening of the month isn't going to slide down into a lionized ending. But it isn't purely lamb-like--sunny, yes, and some warm days. But there's an occasional biting wind lurking around. Our winter coats and scarves and gloves are still hanging around ready to slip on before we head outside.

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Recently I wrote a note to a friend, apologizing for my tardy thanks for her gift. I wasn't sure if I was slowing down or if Time was really and truly speeding up. 

It occurs to me now that this is exactly what my grandparents must have felt. They were married in 1898, had 10 children in the next 24 years, and thus an abundance of grandchildren. We all grew up in "modern" times--jazz, bobbed hair, bathtub gin for the older cousins. Women working in factories during WW II, more jazz, then rock 'n' roll, faster cars for the later group.

As I grew older, I felt my feet dragging when the times started speeding up on me--manners and morals seemed to change overnight; crime came closer to home (no longer just a feature of big city living). When new technology came, I was among those who had to grit their teeth and learn to use computers if they wanted to keep working.

Now that I'm well-advanced in my life, I begin to empathize with my grandparents in their struggle to cope with social change. "Modern times" is a phrase that actually means nothing--every time claims to be modern. New Age is now an outmoded concept. Today's latest-and-greatest is tomorrow's "old school."

What I take away from this line of thinking is this: Why bother trying to keep up? Why not, instead, find what suits us--a preferred way of doing something, a kind of tool or appliance we like to work with, our favorite recipes or quilting patterns or birdhouse designs--and just do those things? Why not, indeed! We can always be creative within the parameters of our faves.

We can still keep up to date with what the world is doing, if we want to, by watching movies and TV series on the hundreds of channels available nowadays. We can visit with our grandchildren and great-grandchildren and find out what they know and like and what's new in their lives. And read--there's always something out there we haven't read yet.

Change is good--it keeps us from growing stale. But change is not good if it's done just to keep up with what the world is doing. Why? Because by the time you change your way of living--especially if you move slowly, like I do--there's yet another brand new way out there waiting for you. 

My experience tells me that what I've done for years, and the ways I've enjoyed doing those things, have become my way of doing them.

It's called being your authentic self. So why not do that!

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Here are some closing thoughts for you:

Daffodils,
That come before the swallow dares, and take
The winds of March with beauty.
–William Shakespeare, The Winter’s Tale

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.
–William Wordsworth, I Wander’d Lonely as a Cloud

Of Spring Weather:
Chillier, but daffodillier.
–The 1991 Old Farmer’s Almanac

Daffodil fields