March Reflections

Happy last day of March! This month has passed by in a deluge of chocolate eggs and cheery daffodils. Spring is underway at last! Here are a few bits and pieces from March I’d love to share with you…

Quotation

“To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.” - Audrey Hepburn
This is an apt sentiment for these fresh spring days and a reminder to nourish the things we love.

Reading

The literary highlight of my month was She Came to Stay by Simone De Beauvoir. I was intimidated by the idea of De Beauvoir but I found her style very readable and so beautiful. The book tells the story of Francoise and Pierre, an intensely close artistic couple whose lives are disrupted when they invite a young woman into the relationship. It is mainly from Francoise’s perspective we experience the novel and we see her grapple with jealousy and self- hatred, desperation and cold hearted calculation. What De Beauvoir is best at is recounting female experience, and all the complexities than come with it, as well as highlighting the baser passions underlining the intellectual scene of Paris in the thirties.

Writing
One of my favourite things is finding out about other people’s creative process. I came across an essay by the poet Vicki Feaver in The Creative Writing Coursebook about her experience writing ‘Judith’, a poem inspired by the biblical heroine. She charts those moments of sudden, unexplainable inspiration as well as the workman like stages of writing where you have to just find a way of articulating what you want to say and being exact in it. I was delighted to find that she has written this short poetry workshop on capturing animals on the page.

Planning

Tolstoy said that ‘spring is the time of plans and projects’. It’s a good time to do a quarter year review on how you’re doing, how you’re working towards your goals and how you can bring a little more happiness into your life. With summer around the corner get thinking about excursions and activities you have planned for warmer days. Are there any creative projects you could start?

Three things to look forward to in April

1. Light evenings.
2. An Alternative April Fool’s day – doing something lovely for your favourite people to celebrate the start of the month.
3. Walks in the rain singing ‘Little April Shower’ from Bambi. 

What did you get up to in March? What are your plans for April? Let me know in the comments below…