Odes of March - Part 3

Caesar's Julian calendar was eventually replaced by the Gregorian calendar, as the good fathers found ways to accommodate the 365.25 days it takes for the Earth to orbit around the sun.  There are several other calendars, of course, and I'm certain the history of the modern calendar would be absolutely spell-binding, if one wished to pursue it.  But for me, on this hot and sunny So Cal morning, (for which March has not come in like a lamb or lion as much as a fire-breathing dragon), it was nature, not the calendar, that brought on this effusive exposition.

I don't know why I often forget to do the things I love. Severing myself from my desk and double screens where I toiled over a book, video editing, employment listings, social media, and all things cyber, I went outside to give my overheated garden some water.  In doing so, I bent to pull some weeds that have greatly multiplied in the alternately rainy and 82 degree weather, and suddenly remembered:  I love being in the garden.  So I took it all in -- the birds singing in the tree above me, the loamy smell of the earth,  the lovely succulents, flowers, and ferns in mottled light.  Then, among the flora, I spotted the jonquil that have sprouted from the earth right on time to bloom for their given month and for my birthday. I actually chortled in delight, then ran back inside to my computer desk.

Zoroaster, b. March 26, 632 BCE
plantpov.com

Because, I love my birthday. (Perhaps I should have led with that?)  But I especially love that my birthday is in March on the day after Zoroaster's. (Maybe we can throw a party together one year!)  Having a birthday in March means sharing the celebration.  I've had Palm Sunday, Easter, Passover (because our family does both),  the NCAA final game, and, one year, the Academy Awards occur on my birthday. And I also share my birthday week with my two best friends from high school, my two female first cousins, and my stepdaughter's sister -- a little herd of she-Rams. There's also my birthday twins, Quentin Tarantino, Fergie, Buster Posey, Gloria Swanson and Sarah Vaughn, to name a few.

So this year, once again the pious and the unruly, priests and pretend leprechauns, 3-point shots and palm fronds, all clamor for their moment of March, surrounded by fresh green cloverleafs and brilliant yellow jonquils -- just like the joyous profusion of spring itself. And for at least one day in the month, someone will take a day off work, eat a nice meal, have good laugh, and enjoy themselves.

garden-flowers.org