In like a lion, out like a lamb 🌸
Spring has sprung.
At least, it’s sprung in Tokyo.
I’ve always loved the old farmer’s saying: If March comes in like a lion, it goes out like a lamb. In Baltimore, where I grew up, that saying was always apt. The beginning of March was cloudy, cold, snowy, windy, and by the end of the month, it was cool, sunny, soft, spring.
This year has proved the saying for my family here in Tokyo, although not in a weatherly way. March’s beginning was hectic.
My younger daughter graduated preschool with all the bells and whistles that entails in Japan, and those are plenty! Then we got ready for the April start to first grade with those bells and whistles, too. My older daughter began a course of study preparation for a test she’ll take five years from now (don’t get me started on the intensity of schooling in Japan), which included a spring break intensive course, naturally. And she finished fourth grade.
My husband didn’t get to take advantage of the 2.5-month recess in classes between the end of one school year and the beginning of the next because of how his movement disorder has progressed. We’ve learned more about his condition, which means new methods of treatment. And he’s in a better place than he was at the beginning of March… that lion.
My washing machine is breaking. It hasn’t completely broken. But it’s going to. It’s a most disruptive thing to have a sort-of-working washing machine, knowing I have to buy one, wanting to buy the best one I can, needing to do the research to make sure that happens, and not wanting to deal with it at all. Such a lion when it should just be working like a sweet, little lamb.
So far, aside from the washing machine, April has been mild. As for the weather, it’s lovely. We even got a few sunny days of cherry blossoms after it’d rained through the start of the cherry blossom season (see picture below). My younger daughter has only cried a few times about elementary school. It’s such a change from the all-day-free-play of preschool. My older daughter got on the school committee she wanted (the music committee). Fifth and sixth graders take leadership of school activities through the committees, which work steadfastly and cooperatively for the betterment of the school body as a whole. Lots of meetings and preparation events for the actual events. Feels very Japanese.
As for writing, I finished a draft of a story for this year’s Hearts Through History anthology. The theme is light, and the stories take place around the winter solstice. Mine has a yule log in it. It still needs a title. Log of Love? One Night, One Light, One Log, One Love? It’s going to take some work, that title.
Wishing you a happy start to spring!
Heather
