Why everyone wants to punch March in the face.

So  I was driving to work this morning and I was SUPER pumped about spring.  Spring is my favorite time of year. I love flowery trees like dogwoods and cherry blossoms. I talk about how pretty it looks all the time, and I feel like singing. i can be obnoxiously cheerful and I have been told to shut up on more than one occasion.

This is an excellent representation of my mood in late April:

LIFE IS WONDERFUL. 

It's a relief, isn't it? Everything was so brown and colorless for so long. And now we have buds ,daffodils and gorgeous trees that are dripping with soft pink flowers. Admit it... you feel like singing a song too.

 In truth, it is really only late spring that I love.
I actually hate the weather immediately up to now.

Why do I hate early spring... like March? March always sucks. In like a lion, out like a lamb? FALSE.
If only it transitioned that smoothly. It feels more like two weeks of lion, then tiny little lamb-y teasers, mixed with BS SNOW EVERY OTHER DAY.

I'm pretty sure it gets on everybody's nerves.

My thoughts about the weather in March sound like this.:

• hate slush hate hate hate slush. 
• Hail? really?
• 60 degrees today...Do you expect me to be excited about this? How long until you break my heart again? 
• SLEET!!! NO.... don't..... I feel rage. 
• Where is the trust, Kevin Benson from Ch11....  you promised me flip flops by Thursday.This is a broken relationship we have. 
• SO over tights and boots. 
• Where are all of my pretty dresses? OH.. IN THE BACK OF MY CLOSET WHERE I WILL NEVER EVER WEAR THEM EVER AGAIN. 
• Beware the Ides of March? Yah. People get stabbed and stuff. March is tricky and can't be trusted. Watch your back. Literally. 
• This is the last year that I expect a fat woodland creature to predict the future with accuracy. 
• NO. NO. I will not use my ice scraper today. It is in the back of my trunk where it should be living until next winter. I refuse to participate in this. The snow removal this morning will have to happen with my windshield wipers exclusively.

But... I felt guilty about my hatred. I wanted to give it a chance. I didn't want to be so hard on March. So then I decided to pick out other months that suck.You know... to distribute the blame. The only ones that I could come up with were November and September..

November sucks because all of the leaves have already fallen and its just brown... and cold.
September sucks because summer is over, school starts, and it seems like I'm always cold and I just want to go back to the pool.

And then I figured it out.

OH. These are all the transition months.

I usually hate all transitions, not just in reference to the weather. I think most people do.
Think about all the transitions that a person goes through.

• The  above mentioned brown trees in November and March... everything is just brown and everyone is waiting impatiently for either Christmas or spring.
• When you are waiting for the snow to melt and the ground is covered in Mud.  
• When you are trying to grow your bangs out.. You never know what to do with your hair in the awkward middle stages.  
• When your house is in construction and there are paint cans, drop cloths, and dust everywhere.
• Have you ever been cleaning out  your closet? What does your room look like mid- process?
• How about the state of your kitchen while you are preparing a meal for a lot of people?
• How about adolescence or puberty???
• How about graduating college or starting a new job? 

It's always hard when you can't see the ending. You try to believe in the exciting plot twists that are heading your way,  but we get so impatient. The waiting feels painfully long, even if it's not.

In Oh the places you'll go, by Dr. Seuss, He describes the excruciating monotony of waiting in transition.

“You can get so confused
that you’ll start in to race
down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace
and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space,
headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.
The Waiting Place…

…for people just waiting.
Waiting for a train to go
or a bus to come, or a plane to go
or the mail to come, or the rain to go
or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow
or waiting around for a Yes or a No
or waiting for their hair to grow.
Everyone is just waiting.

I think people have a choice on whether to make the waiting place a temporary living situation, or set up a permanent residence. They are either paying rent or a mortgage  As tiring as it might be to wait for answers,  a call back, or an opportunity,  It's much better than living like that for the rest of your life...

So how do you avoid living like that for the rest of your life? Some people will always be looking for a better job, a nicer car, a bigger paycheck and a smaller dress size. They might be stuck in the waiting place, like March forever. Also, you can just be partly in the waiting place. You may be where you want in you career, but not in your relationships. You may have the job, but not the money. You may have everything except the dress size. I think this can be enough, if you let it. You will never have everything that you want.

When do you decide when you have achieved enough? When are you "done?" also, when you are constantly running towards a finish line, are you taking time to be grateful for what you already have?

 You just have to be wise enough to distinguish between what you need , and what God wants you to do. You must be able to be thankful for what you have while still holding ambition. You have to strive for the things you want, but also what God wants. You have to live in the moment, but also look towards the future... a healthy balance between humility and aspiration.

Oh you know.. because that just super easy to figure out. 

So.. since I am an Art teacher, and a total art nerd..I'll bring up Van Gogh.

Vincent Van Gogh had a tough life. He struggled with setbacks, crushing sadness, and mental illness. He once described his childhood as "gloomy and cold and sterile." He had a very successful job in his early 20's.  He was making more than his father and he fell in love with a beautiful young woman. Right when he was on top, he was dumped mercilessly, then fired from his job in the same year. Vincent's greatest ambition was to be a pastor  because he loved the Lord and wanted to do good. So after he got dumped, he went on to seminary. He failed out in one year.  He had to move back in with his parents, and they were so concerned about him that they almost sent him to a lunatic asylum.He came from a successful family of intellectuals and successful businessmen so when his life went south, they saw him as a burden, and a failure.

The one thing that brought him joy was his relationship with his brother, Theo. His brother was the first person that really encouraged him to paint.

 It's like God was saying...

"No, not that. Not her. No, not that either.  You need to do something else.

 I need you to be painting pictures "

 Van Gogh only started to paint at age 29. In the eight years that followed,  he painted 860 paintings.

Van Gogh's misfortunes continued despite his growing love of painting. In the last year of his life, his depression and mental illness were starting to overwhelm him until the day that Theo and his wife had a baby.  They named the little boy after him. He was so excited about this new life that he painted  baby Vincent a picture in celebration. The subject was almond blossoms, a tree that flowers in spring. He had previously painted almond branches in a  vase, with the flowers cut off. Not this time. The composition is of live branches, and the viewer seems to be looking up into a clear blue sky. This style was very out of character for Van Gogh.

It's my favorite picture. It means hope and strength in times of suffering. It reminds me of the beauty in the world.  It hangs in my apartment above by bed, and  I had a copy in my classroom last year. 

Lets all take a moment and Thank God for spring: both the season and the metaphor.  Spring is a hope and a relief. Van Gogh was able to come out of his depression long enough to make something beautiful and to thank God for a new baby. .

The sun will come out and take away the brown of winter. Christmas will come. Your hair will grow out and your house will look fantastic when all of the work is done. You will survive your awkward adolescence  and graduation won't seem so scary.

March is only 31 days long, and you wont be stuck in your transition/waiting place forever if you choose otherwise.

After Dr. Seuss talks about the waiting place, he talks about the "spring" after you leave :

NO!
That's not for you!
Somehow you'll escape
all that waiting and staying.
You'll find the bright places
where Boom Bands are playing.
With banner flip-flapping,
once more you'll ride high!
Ready for anything under the sky.
Ready because you're that kind of a guy!
Oh, the places you'll go! There is fun to be done!
There are points to be scored. there are games to be won.
And the magical things you can do with that ball
will make you the winning-est winner of all.
Fame! You'll be famous as famous can be,
with the whole wide world watching you win on TV

I am not sure whether I will ever be able to achieve that healthy balance between gratitude and ambition.. 

I know that I will try. In the meantime, I'll work on celebrating the little things that remind me of goodness..God sends you reminders of things that bring you renewal, and hope which gives you strength. 

So If you see a butterfly, a flower , a dogwood tree, or a clear blue sky today... go ahead and break out into song. ... 

... and If you have the chance to hold a  little baby,  maybe you can remember God"s promise to send new life.

and your spring might be just around the corner, where the boom bands will be playing.