I have always had a great affinity for March. My birthday is in March (I’m an Aries). I remember learning that little ditty in school, March comes in like a lion, but goes out like a lamb. I always thought that saying was about the wind. I love the wind—unless it’s a tornado and then I’m terrified. There is a lot basketball in March. Growing up deep in ACC country, it’s a big deal. And spring officially comes in March complete with the vernal equinox and a time change (in the US)! Occasionally, Easter comes early too.

This March has been no less “mad” than the others. I feel like everyone is “mad” at each other all the time. Is it the crazy weather? The ticking of the make-a-college-decision clock? The Mercury retrograde? The political climate which continues from bad to worse? The war currently waging across the globe?

It is ironic, but surely no accident, that we are in the middle of Lent. Lent, the season of quiet reflection, repentance, and spiritual purification to prepare for the resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday.

But maybe it’s all connected? March comes in like a lion full of loudness and chaos and goes out like a lamb—forty days of religious practice in preparation for the lamb of God. The spring equinox signaling a change of the seasons towards rebirth, a warming of the earth, the coming of flowers and vegetation, the triumph over winter. And the resurrection of Jesus, the ultimate triumph of good over evil.

Dearest Ones, I have no answers and oh so many questions about the state of the world, my life, my purpose. I do not know what spring will “spring” on us this year. It could be heartbreak like Beethoven’s Symphony 7 in A major Op. 92, or it could be like Beethoven’s 9th Symphony “Ode to Joy.” In both pieces there is a promise. One in A major is so sad and one in D minor is more of a turning towards joy. Oh the oxymoron (you know how I love them). In these two pieces there is promise. Within these two pieces is the “both, and” tension of our lives.

There will be good and bad, joy and sorrow, life and death in our lives. Regardless of what happens, we can acknowledge our human frailty in Psalm 51, believe in the hope of Isaiah 40, and rest in the promise of John 3.

Maybe March is the month of “both, and?” I kind of like that. The lion and the lamb. Winning and losing. Repentance and Forgiveness. Acknowledgment and Acceptance. Death and Resurrection. I resolve to live in the “spring” (tension?) of the “both, and.”

Love y’all, Marla