January

Now that it is February I can talk about January.

I feel like a teenager with a group of new friends, talking down about someone who has left our circle. “He’s such a geek! Those pants he wears look like a flood is on the way!”

That is really cruel and teenagers can be very mean to others.

But, I’m not a teenager…far from it and January is just a month. So, get a little closer and keep your voice down. Let’s talk trash about January!

January always comes in with a bang but leaves with a whimper. You have all the excitement of New Year’s Day-sleeping in after a night of partying and then just relaxing at home while the cold winds of winter howl outside. Thankfully, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is celebrated on the 19th and if the weather holds, in many communities there are parades, but, that’s about it.

It's during this month that sickness seems to be everywhere. We're cooped up in our houses with drying heat and low humidity. When we try to venture out and spend time with others at a gathering, many times we come home with an unwanted guest...the flu or some other contageous sickness.

January is like one of those old western movies where a cowboy wandering in the desert starts off strong, but as you follow their tracks you start to notice pieces of clothing, shagged off because of the heat and delirium. By the end of the month we are all desperate for something to happen; a holiday, a snowstorm, just give us anything but gray, cold weather, please!

January is just depressing! Those very short days when it starts to get dark at 4 PM and even during daylight hours, the sun is low and the skies are dreary.

It is during this month that I have to start preparing my taxes for…tax season. And I probably don’t need to explain about the drudgery in that!

January was always the time when my parents had most of their “discussions.” It was when reality hit and they looked at the credit card bills…or my dad realized how much my mother had charged up on the Mastercard.

During January, I stare out my kitchen window and watch all the birds hungry and desperate, trying to eat as much as possible at the feeder to keep warm. I see the usual crowd; the blue jays, cardinals and sparrows, but every once in a while, like the flash of a comet, I’ll see a rarity. A bird that normally doesn’t come to my backyard. That is exciting…but boy, I’m really grasping for excitement at this point!

With all that trash talk said, January won’t be back again for another year.

Sometimes, I wish Monday would go away just as much as January. But, January is needed even though it can be a rough month for everyone. Monday is another story.

Without January we wouldn’t have the cold, but many seeds wouldn’t sprout. The trees who provide us with shade and clean our air would become sick without a break. Like us, they need a time to sleep and January, along with the other winter months, gives them that pause.

During January, when all the branches are bare, I love to look at the tree limbs - the gnarly arms that stretch into the sky. The trees have shed their clothes (the leaves) and now all the flaws can be seen. Like us, you can see the scars, the bumps, the cracks and creases. But, I find it beautiful, unique and original, just like each of us.

If we didn’t have the cold breath of winter in January just think about how voracious the biting insects would be during the year. I love being able to hike deep into the woods without any mosquitoes or biting flies to swat at. Not having to load up with a bug spray and being able to sit safely on a bed of brown leaves without the worry of a poisonous snake bite.

In January I start thinking about what to plant in the garden - about the wildflower seeds that I’ll plant during February and March. I circle seed varieties to order from the mail-order catalog like I did with toy catalogs before Christmas all those years ago. My, oh my, have my interests changed!

During the end of the month, I prune back my muscadine vines and fig bushes, knowing that come summer this cutting will provide me with a bounty of wonderful fruit.

January is like the adolescent wishing for adulthood. Wishing for perfect hair, a clear complexion and muscular body. But after 31 days, January will blossom into February and then to March. The bare trees will become green with small buds, the soil will spout new plants and the rest of the months will thank this rather dull and unattractive period in time.

It is a month that reminds us that with darkness there is light, but you must travel through the darkness to see it.