In like a lion, out like a butter lamb

So, March is pretty crappy so far: a few feet of snow, one 65 degree day to melt it, then freezing temperatures to freeze it all over again!

James and I just got back from watching the Sabres lose to the Rangers: we went with our friends Jeff and Kathy, and all returned home morose and then walked the frozen tundra between the subway station and our destinations.  Not so great end to a not so great game.

In one of those rare occurrences, the Feast of the Annunciation is after Easter this year.  Usually Lent is interrupted by this great feast, and the purple is traded in for white for a day; this year, in one of those once-in-a-decade things, Annunciation will follow the celebration of Christ's resurrection: the LORD dies and rises before he's conceived.

But, March 25's celebration of Gabriel's Annunciation falls so nicely, at least in the northern hemisphere, and winter closes, and spring begins to wake.  The promise encapsulated in the Annunciation mirrors the promise of the returning spring and warmth, much like Christmas falls near the winter solstice and feast of the unconquered sun.

So, while we curse (either silently or aloud) the slush on our boots, the ice on our windshields, and the dripping icicles which plop, plop, plop on our heads when we leave the house in the morning, let's also (either silently or aloud) praise the Christ whose presence in the world in the harbinger for life springing eternal: ever new and ever different.