I belong to a writing group where we meet twice a month and do a write up about anything that comes to our mind, the trick is we all have to write and share our writing.  In the month of March we wanted to write about “March” which can be anything from being the name of a month or the meaning of the word etc,  being hesitant and do not want to lose out on not mentioning something that can be relevant I had to write three articles:

Articles one, the month of March:

This can mean the month of March! Or it can mean to walk like a soldier in an army or can mean the various celebrations that happen in March.

The Month of march is full of feminine perceptions, even though the name came from Martius who was the god of war in the Roman empire, and then January and February were added to make it the third month of the year, except for Iran as they still start their year from the 21st of march.

The feminism  comes from having the international women’s day in march, mother’s day in march, grandmothers day in March and a general agreement to have a month dedicated to women and equality.  Now we don’t have to necessary believe in this as we were respected as women since more than 1400 year ago, suffice it to say that we have a whole sura in Quran named after us, we have a dialogue between a woman and the profit, and then it also became a sura (almujadela), and we have a sura for Maryam. There is also a very important saying by the profit : take care of women, and by an Imam : women are like glass, never break them.

My mother’s birthday is in march too, and to me that is an important date, as she also got married in the same month, and had me only nine months after that. We normally celebrate it by taking her to dinner. This year though she was traveling and we missed it (which reminds me that I must take her to dinner soon)

When we march through the month of March we need to remember that we must respect ourselves first and then the world will respect us.

Article two:

Inspiration and struggle and how to keep a balance

It gives me agony to remember my time when I was just beginning my life. I was marching with strides longer than the Mississippi, everything that takes a mere phone call now used to take me months to achieve. I am not talking about technology and the lack of it, I am talking about the troubles that I had faced in almost every endeavor.

Take for example my studies! And don’t take me wrong here as I did love my life. Well we were not doing that well. At times over there I drink tea with a biscuit instead of dinner. In the morning I would March fast to the university, of course this happened end of each month, it was not just me, most of the girls with me had similar situations and we would be marching to college on foot. Once we are there and that too for the whole day, we would find the “Semit” sellers, and these used to be sold for a ten fils. We used to wait to the beginning of the month when our small budget arrives. So I devised I strategy. We will calculate how much we need to live normally each month. We put that in a jar and one of us takes turns to do the spending and purchasing. Once I remember falling ill, I couldn’t walk, one of the friends (who lived in a different room) found out and took me in a taxi to a place that sold grilled liver and meat. She made me eat so many skewers. At the end I was fine. So hunger was the culprit.

Then finding a job, a whole year passed before I found one. Every morning you dash to the various ministries or companies and give them your certificates. Those days we didn’t know what a CV was nor did we send emails. It took longer to find a job then, and once one does, life won’t be as difficult.

Did it stop at that! Absolutely not, marching through marriage, children, work and most importantly being outside one’s comfort zone as in being in a different country. One needs to build a life and gather friends and raise the kids as well as one can. I had to immigrate to change their nationality and whilst there I took on new studies and many jobs to make them feel comfortable.

I think I have a second name now. Suad and March.

Now though, my March is to gain longevity and keep a healthy lifestyle and give myself balance. That too is due to a long life of running around trying to make ends meet instead of being healthy.

Article three:

The month of March is so dear to me. I am an avid gardener, I love to grew seeds of any kind! Whatever I eat and it has seeds I just save them and grew them in March. Some may never become a plant, some may grow a little and wither and die before it becomes a shrub, some may grow but never give fruit but some flourish and become magnificent.

My March is full of activities, I start with buying potting mix and pots. Then change the soil of my indoor plants after pruning them (the pruned parts are going in water to make new plants) and then add the vitamins and whatever else the plants my need. Then I go to the outdoor garden, it’s a small one in the roof, and plant flowers and dig to remove the baby snake plants and African spears that grew out of their mothers. I prune my orange and lemon trees and buy some varieties of flowers to plant in the boxes.

I wish the whole year is March as the weather is great, I had always felt abundant due to the doubling or tripling of my plants.

March as a month is also when my wedding happened, so it’s supposed to be the anniversary month.  we also have a lot of birthdays in this month.  Thus with the planting and celebrating we have a great month.

I hope all your months and years are as graceful as mine, and maybe more graceful.