March Forth

Yesterday was one of my favorite dates of the year: March 4th.  It's both a date and an imperative. (Yes, I know I'm a word nerd.  So sue me.)  I used to love to tell my students that it was now time to really begin our March forth - to spring, to the end of the school year, to bigger and better things.

I've always liked March.  It's like the reward you get for slogging through February.  You can feel the promise of spring in the air, enticingly close, but not quite here.  March is full of possibility, of potential.  It can often be tumultuous, and while it often ends up sneaking in one last little bit of nasty weather, it usually makes nice by the end.

March is a month of transition - the ending of the cold, bleakness of winter and trading it in for the blossoming rebirth of spring.  It never is a clear transition here in North Carolina.  We get a few days of warm weather, then a blast of arctic air.  Over and over, until the blasts are less frequent, and the days finally dissolve into warmth.

That is where I am.

I can feel the coming spring in my bones.  I know that in just a short while, there is going to be a bursting forth of life and renewal.  There will be warmth and beauty and a whole realm of possibility.  It's enticingly close.  But it's not today.  Today is one of those last blasts of nasty, bitter, bone-chilling cold.  The kind of day that almost makes you forget that there is even such a thing as bright warm sunshine and soft breezes.  The kind of day that tests your mettle.

And just as there is no point in railing against the weather, there really doesn't seem much use in putting up a fight against the bleakness of today.  So instead, I will surrender to it and recognize that the bulbs of spring can't blossom until they have weathered the chill of winter.  New things cannot truly begin until old ones truly end.  But new things will begin.

That's the gift of March: It starts blustery and harsh, but with those early days' imperative it brings the reminder - March forth.  There are better days ahead.  Just keep moving forward - one foot in front of the other, steady, slowly, non-stop.  The promise is there, but you have to move toward it.  And you can only claim it if you have the courage to march forth.