It's February, and I already feel the year slipping away.
Okay... maybe it's a little early to start lamenting the year going by too fast, but I do often feel a sense of desperation for how time seems to disappear faster each year. Does anyone else out there reading this relate?
Something I've been doing for a few years now is recording life in journals/planners of a sort - something I create as I go. I tend to peter out by summer (which is a great disappointment when I look back at my journals), but each year I stick with it a little longer. Fortunately, I record stuff on my phone's calendar, so at least I can look back for the dates that important-to-me things happened. Being more of an optimist than not, every January I start a journal like this, and hope it will have staying power. One of these years, maybe...
While we've turned chilly again, and snow is in the forecast, it was unseasonably warm the first three days of February. Sunday was in the 50's and Monday was 68°F! In the sunroom on Groundhog Day, I enjoyed how glorious were the colors I was crocheting with, as I sat like a cat bathed in sunlight, basking in its warmth.
While true spring is a month and a half away on the calendar, and probably longer than that in temperatures, it was spring in my heart for a few days. All stresses melted away, as thoughts of what I might plant in the garden tickled my imagination.
While the month started out very nicely here, and in spite of all my crooning over how great the warmth has been, I am not ready for the busyness of spring. I have more cocooning to do. More cooking of hearty meals. More getting things in order, and house cleaning before we start traipsing in dirt and dust from outside all over again.
And breaking into all these pleasant things is the knowledge that there are many still suffering from hurricane damage in the southeast, and fire damage in California, and all kinds of pestilence and harms around the globe. I sometimes struggle when life is going well for me, knowing it is hard for others. Do you this too? It seems a form of survivor's guilt. Not productive except that it prompts me to pray and help when and how I can.
How is it in your corner of the world? Are you filled with the hope of coming spring, or struggling through the dreary cold of winter? Or somewhere in between? Every February I seem to find myself somewhere in between - this year glad for merely chilly temps instead of the bitter cold we had a few weeks ago; not wanting spring to come too early, but also eager to see things growing again.
As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night will never cease.
Genesis 8:22 (NASB)
February is pretty much always the worst month for me to deal with. Spring seems so far away and this year we're getting a lot more snow than we have in at least a couple of years. I am SO tired of cleaning the car off every time we have to go anywhere. This morning we had to be out before 9 to allow the snow removal people to do their thing. We stayed out for both breakfast and lunch, came home and they hadn't been here. Half an hour later we look out and there they are. Argh!!!!
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about suffering some form of survivor's guilt, as well as so much concern over the political situation throughout the entire world. Difficult days indeed.
I love turning the page of the calendar to February. It is often a tease of spring for us southerners, but sometimes we get a good many warm sunny days to make it a big hooray, Then March comes along and rains on the parade or at least tries to blow us away. I have tried for many years now to embrace winter and do all the housekeeping, but every year when I turn that calendar page to February I realize I have failed once again. I just like long sunny days and warm too. As for busy, January was pretty doggone busy so I don't know if I got my winter rest or not. I think we have all felt the weight of the world lately.
ReplyDeleteHello, my friend. I also keep a planner. I have for years and years. I love the new year and all the blank pages! And yes! Yes to how quickly life is going! February...then March. April is Easter then May and might as well be summer! Slow down, please. I am with you. I am not done with all the cozy quite yet. Hugs!
ReplyDeleteFebruary here in north central Florida can be a mixed bag of warm days and cool nights, or cool days and nights, or warm days and warm nights! We never know! But we know it won't snow, that we do know! I have yet to put away my extra blankets and sweaters...they still feel good especially in the early morning hours and evening hours. But the afternoons have been rather warm and mostly sunny, and it gives me the feeling of spring around the corner and I'm beginning to think about flowers and leaves coming back on the few deciduous type trees we have. Most are pine or live oak or hollies that don't ever completely lose their leaves like the maples do, but still there are signs of spring and I'm ready for that. I enjoyed our much cooler winter than normal that we had here this year, but I am ready for spring...just wish we could skip right over summer and get back to fall, however. Summer here in Florida is never very pleasant to me. Too hot, too muggy, too buggy! LOL. But we are very thankful for central AC that keeps us cool, calm, and collected, as long as we don't have to work outside for long! I am thankful for this season of in between and will try to make it last as long as possible!
ReplyDelete