Month of Roses

The perfume of roses drifts through the air,

Invites passers-by to stop and rest.

People on benches devour the sun,

The roses around shine in bright colours.

It's the month of June!

Well... just for a few more hours.

© LaGraziana 2013 

April

Another thirty days have passed with loads of office work, the usual everyday chores and leisure time limited to evenings and weekends. My look back on April is ambiguous. The month had its good as well as its unpleasant sides, but of course, that’s just the normal course of existence. We all know that life is changeable by nature and that we have to deal with whatever comes our way. All in all, I have no reason to complain. The only real nuisance was the weather that happened to be hopelessly behind schedule at first. 

April didn’t begin on a cheerful note for me although it was Easter Monday and I didn’t need to go to work. As a matter of fact, the long winter with heavy snowfalls in the last week of March had ruined not only my holiday plans, but it had also put me out of temper. In spite of not being susceptible to winter depression, the late cold, the snow and the grey skies made me downright grumpy. When the sun finally returned, also my mood brightened. Trees and bushes have broken into leaf since. The temperatures are just below 30°C now. 

It has also been a busy month that forced me to reduce my blogging activities mid-way. I had known all along that this moment would come, but I had hoped to stand my pace for a little longer. Writing – as I wish – interesting and worthwhile posts every day needs quite a lot of devotion as well as energy. After a day in the office I often found it hard to summon up enough motivation to spend my free time, too, in front of a computer screen. In the end I resigned. I decided to follow my heart and to post less often to this blog. 

After half a month I can say that I definitely made the right choice. Spending less time online gives me more opportunity to read and to watch films which will be for the benefit of this blog as well as of my literary work. I don’t know how other authors think about it, but for me reading is necessary part of writing. When I don’t read, my inspiration peters out and I can’t create. So it’s better for you and for me, if I allow myself time to read.

March - A Tanka

Sun and muddy earth.
Primroses spreading yellow
carpets on the lawns.

Birds singing in bare tree-tops,
snow flakes drifting in the air.

© LaGraziana 2013

February

The second month of the year is coming to a close and it's time to make another interim balance.

This time it's rather easy for me to summarise the past 28 days in a single word: GREY!!!!! We've seen much snow and much rain this month, more than we had expected and much more than we would have wished for. According to the weather statistics, winter in Graz hasn't been as unfriendly for 130 years! As a matter of fact, this makes me wonder if those scientists who keep warning us that the Gulf Stream is cooling and that we're heading for a new Ice Age might not be right after all... well, we'll see sooner or later.

For the ancient Romans February was the month of purification - purification before starting into the new cycle of a year with spring. Actually a little bit of purification would do me good right now! My mind is so full with all kinds of things, important and unimportant, that there doesn't seem to be any room left for new ideas to shoot up and grow. For a writer this is not a good state of mind. I'd better sweep out some of the dust that settled on the grey matter of my brains during the course of a long and eventful year.

But how best to go about a spring cleaning of the mind? Faithful Christians will probably recommend me to observe the forty days of fasting until Easter. The Lent season started on Ash Wednesday two weeks ago, but I'm neither a practicing Catholic, nor do I feel a need to change my food habits since I've never been a great eater. I'd have to reduce my meals to virtually nothing at all, if I made up my mind to fast! Others might suggest that I take some exercice. An excellent idea... but I hate sports, I always did.

My preferred method of refreshing my mind is meditation, more precisely zazen. Unfortunately, my tight schedule didn't leave me much time for it as late, or to be truthfully, I just didn't give it priority. I miss this anchor in my life and my pillow is loudly calling me - I'm more than just willing to follow! As a complement I'll resume a bit of yoga because I miss it, too. Yoga? But that's sports, you may argue now. Not for me! For me yoga is meditation in motion and that's just what I need at the moment when spring is around the corner.

January

The first month of 2013 is almost over. If I were asked to describe the past thirty-one days in no more than three words, I'd choose: holidays, snows, deadlines.

All things considered, the beginning of this new year hasn't been too bad for me. I started off with almost a full week of holidays, true holidays to relax and recharge my batteries. Of course, the peace and quiet didn't last for long. Ever since the end of my holidays, I've been having a rather busy schedule at work as well as at home like the greater number of people in our fast-moving age. On most days I didn't even have time to follow the news! Well, that's nothing I regret. After all, I heard about shootings, wars, kidnappings, accidents, and natural disasters despite all. Like it or not, in our modern and digitally connected world it has become practically impossible to avoid bad news. On the other hand the good news, don't always make it into my universe. Isn't it weird, even perverse?

My days have been rather exhausting, but I still managed to find some moments to read regularly - on my way to and from work as well as in bed before going to sleep. It hasn't always been easy to follow my reading verve because thanks to the snow and the cold the bus was often too packed with people to open my bag with the book inside. As you can imagine, I haven't actually been delighted at the weather, but then, what could I do about it? At night I could hardly keep my eyes open on some days and had to put away my book after just a few pages. Also many letters have remained unanswered during this month. I needed my weekends for writing fiction because I had a deadline to meet. Luckily, January has been a very calm month in my letterbox. It stayed emtpy on many days and I didn't mind. On the contrary, I was glad to have no reason for a guilty conscience.

Tomorrow a new month begins, another good month as I hope... and one that will allow me to take up my usual activities at my usual pace. But let's wait and see. Life is always good for a surprise, isn't it?