Comments on: Tentative Beginnings

By: cybele

cybele — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 19:01:01 +0000

Not having read this post, I did the same just yesterday. Although a 9 months pregnant woman raking the leaves off all the tulips and daffodils was enough to bring out the neighbors, I persevered until my hips hurt and it was too dark to continue. In a few short hours I had cleaned 4.5 of the 5 flowerbeds and had the best nights sleep in weeks. While my husband and the neighbors all said I overdid it, I had such a sense of calm and accomplishment that the baby-panic dreams escaped me completely. All that being said, I had no such illusions of a longer to-do list for the rest of the week. It seemed to cure me completely.
I hope you can find a task that brings you that cure!

By: Spring’s arrival, with images of hope « Eva Evolving

Spring’s arrival, with images of hope « Eva Evolving — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 16:16:45 +0000

[...] Elizabeth at Life in Pencil wrote about March and its tentative beginnings, caught undecided between more winter hibernation [...]

By: Asha

Asha — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 05:07:02 +0000

Beautiful! I hope your gardens blooms with fragrant flowers and lush green plants

Regards,
Asha

By: Eva

Eva — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 23:02:42 +0000

Elizabeth, I can’t believe you were doing spring yardwork already! Here in Minnesota we still have a few feet of snow on the ground. But the melt has started.

You reminded me that I planted a lot (a lot!) of tulip bulbs last fall, and hopefully we’ll see them soon. You are right, “March is an identity crisis.” I love this description! I used to hate having a March birthday, but now I kind of like it. The changing of seasons is something we shouldn’t take for granted.

The thing that sticks with me most is the need for plateaus. I love to be productive, but I must allow myself to be lazy, to embrace silence and serenity.

By: Atarah

Atarah — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 21:54:03 +0000

I wonder if this sloshing feeling has something to do with not just moving through seasons but in your case tri-mesters as well. It was almost 9 years ago since I was last pregnant (wow), but I do recall a feeling very similar in the end and of my 1st and beginning of my 2nd trimester. It was this enormous desire to cuddle in bed with my quilt as long as I was humanly able and to fully appreciate a good, cloudy, drizzly day. (Not hard to do here). Either way, soak it up; I love the “sloshy” feeling it’s comforting. Sometimes being idle is a gift, giving us time to reflect and reassess.

By: anne

anne — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:16:36 +0000

I’ve never been good at that “in-between” time, when seasons take their sweet time to change. For me, I think it’s more about impatience than anything else, and wanting to dive into the activities/clothes/food that make each season its own. I’m not sure whether I psychologically fall into the same kind of “slosh” or not…for the time being, I’m feeling excited about the promise of all the things on the horizon…and trying to enjoy that, since I’m often worrying about the things I haven’t yet checked off.

By: Kristen @ Motherese

Kristen @ Motherese — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:16:48 +0000

I struggle with the sloshing (or the “tummy time” as I call it, borrowing an idiom from my life with babies). I easily get caught up in existential angst and find it helpful sometimes to get up (literally) and go, borrowing Nike’s command to “Just do it” – whatever it is, paying a bill, responding to an e-mail, just something to feel a glimmer of accomplishment and maybe just inspire me to do more. I wish I were more comfortable with the being.

By: Bre

Bre — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:08:20 +0000

Ugh, I am currently in a “slosh”. However, I have found that having two little ones to take care of keeps me from getting too deep into one. It helps me remember that it’s not all about me and what I want or don’t want to do. I usually “allow” myself a day of rest on Mondays after we have been in Kansas City for the weekend. We are constantly go, go, going when we are there, so I guess I feel I deserve a day of rest when we are back home. I love reading your blog Liz! It’s always nice to be able to relate to someone, and to know I’m not the only one “sloshing” from time to time. =)

By: elizabeth

elizabeth — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 14:52:02 +0000

Emily, I, too, like the term “slosh,” which I believe I stole from Centerpoint somewhere along the way. I think you make a good point here: make some small strides to step into the new beginning, but if it’s STILL not working, accept the fact that what you need to do at the moment is retreat. There’s no pushing spring.

By: jennifer

jennifer — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 14:26:12 +0000

Yesterday I insisted my husband and I take a walk at lunch (we have our own business, HQ is home). Because we’ve been snowbound, it was the first walk in weeks. So great to see crocus shoots coming up through the snow, creeks rushing with snowmelt, and signs of spring just around the corner. Soon we’ll put away the toboggan and snowboards, and start the spring cleaning.