Tuesday, March 29, 2011

march madness......



It's easy to slip into the insipid realm of early March, where colour and life has faded into late winter drab. Accumulated road sand and soot covers the lingering piles of snow.  Once dormant and forgotten, autumn discards are revealed again.   Emotions tank.  Energy falters below the safety line.  

The ability to think straight drops into the abyss of complicated confusion.  There are moments when just trying to find a pair of socks that match or a pair of mittens that don't smell foul will lift the lid off your normally rational head! All of a sudden, you find yourself having a meltdown, or worse yet allowing a gutteral screech that sounds very much like a screaming banshee terrorize the air around you.   

March madness is REAL, LOUD and crazymaking!

Sure, the term is used to describe the American College basketball play-offs, but it clearly describes the incessant claustrophia one feels at this time of year.  Or, maybe its just me.  Maybe I'm the only one who suffers from the dips, tanks, falters and drops?  My emotional reaction time is Olympian!  My defenses are up.  My fuse is short.  My energy during the day needs more caffienation.  Every day my biggest wish is to get home and put my jammies on.......... Just get through the day.

How about you?  Does March Madness zap your optimism?  Does it eliminate your ability to seek solutions to simple dilemmas?  Is ineffectual anger simmering under your scaly dry skin just ready to take control of your senses? Or were you one of those lucky buggers who left this bone chilling wilderness for a breath of relief on some warm beach? I curse you!!!!

Last week, a friend of mine, who is struggling through the "one step forward, two giant steps back" syndrome like the rest of us told me that she has tried to just take 5 deep breaths..... Inhale, exhale.... without thinking and fretting.  "I can't even do THAT!" she replied.  We laughed and snuck away for a beer and nachos..... escaping the sharpness of "MAD" while turning it on its side and seeing the absurdity of trying to live through this colourless month. 

It worked.  We met up with a crazy waitress full of vitality. Her madness was UPBEAT!  She kept feeding us beer and checking on us like a mother hen, and our spirits lifted as we began to grasp hold of balance and perspective on the issues we were personally trying to cope with.   

Sometimes taking those 5 deep breaths in March need a little help.... humour, empathy and SUDS.  

Oh wait a minute.......it's almost over!  Bring on April foolish whimsy!!! 

Ontario Specialties, Toronto,
A store chock full of WHIMSY!
April 2010

This week's Photo theme is "March Madness...."  For more shots taken during this month of March, check out Carmi's blog. 



3 comments:

Jan Timmons said...

And I felt alone in my morass until I read your elegant, funny, insightful prose. Heh. Thanks for this.

Good to discover your site.

awareness said...

Welcome Jan! Yes, we're all in this March morass together. Thank God!!

Sue said...

I just love the way you write!

It's March madness for me here in Australia ... but the autumnal version. I am beginning to notice a pattern - mad in March, mad in September, the transitional equinoxal change from one season to another. Everything goes a bit haywire for me - health, anxiety levels, asthma. It's like as the earth sits balanced in equality, it gives an opportunity for all my imbalances to come out :)