Springtime or Winter?

Changeable March

Unbridled, unsaddled, unfettered, and free,

Thundering through the sky,

Shaking and waking each slumbering tree,

March comes galloping by.

One moment stormy;  the next moment, still,

Basking in morning sun;

Fractious, then gentle, he changes until

Spring has truly begun.

                                                                                                                     —-Blanche Day Manos

I wrote those words several years ago but I always think of them when March comes. Truly, March is the changeable month and we never know from day to day whether we’ll have spring or winter. I’ve noticed signs that March has wakened a few slumbering trees because some early bloomers are threatening to put out buds. And the hyacinths by the sidewalk are more fully opened and perfumed. So this morning in NW Arkansas, March is basking in the morning sun. But we can certainly expect March winds to come thundering through and with all this uncertainty in the heavens will come the inevitable damaging storms and tornadoes.

I remember when I was a child and how anxiously we would scan the skies if we thought a storm was in the offing. We had a radio but we did not have a TV back in the Olden Days and sometimes that radio was not in the best working order. So we had to depend upon weather lore or our own eyes. If the cows and Chappo the horse were nervous, heads up, sniffing the wind, we knew to be aware also. If the breeze suddenly quit and the day grew very calm under threatening clouds, we anxiously scanned the heavens. Sometimes the clouds would have a bruised, green-purple look. I’m sure I’ve seen many wall clouds but I didn’t know what to call them in those days. I’m not sure what we would have done if we had seen a tornado heading our way. We had no near neighbors and had no cellar, plus the fact that we had some mighty big trees towering around our small house.

Once in later years, I actually saw a tornado but thankfully have never felt the brunt of one. The clouds were roiling, dark and a little darker and I was peering out the  window, trying to see what was going on. Way above me, I saw a small funnel. It reminded me of a finger. It pointed downward at the earth, then drew back into the angry sky. Hopefully, that’s as close as I’ll ever get to a tornado.

It’s comforting to know that He who formed the earth and skies also stilled the storm. So, when March with her capricious moods decides one day to be winter and the next day to be spring, we can rest assured that although we can’t do a thing about the weather, the One who planned the seasons is Master of them all.