"I have lost to February"

February always seems to arrive just at the point when I can't take any more winter. Regardless of what the groundhog sees, February always teases me with some lovely, spring-like weather: just enough so I get excited about unpacking my sandals and summer clothes. Then February laughs and turns back into winter. Curse you, February!

I'm trying to make this blog more about my own thoughts and less about linking to other people, but often I find that someone else has said what I'm trying to say so perfectly that it would be a loss not to mention it. Today, I am thinking about a haunting Dar Williams song about two lovers whose relationship can't withstand the winter. It's called, appropriately, February:

And February was so long that it lasted into March
And found us walking a path alone together.
You stopped and pointed and you said, "That's a crocus,"
And I said, "What's a crocus?" and you said, "It's a flower,"
And I tried to remember, but I said, "What's a flower?"

On a day like today, when it is so gray and cold and it feels like it will never stop raining, it's hard to remember the meaning behind words like "spring" and "sunshine" and "joy."


(Melancholy by Edvard Munch)