Q2 Already

I don't really think of the year in terms of quarters, since I am not living squarely in the world of business and revenue targets and all that. So this is really a fancier way of saying, "How can March be over already? And we're in April?" which I have said many many a time before.

Part of my feeling that it must still be February or March is the relentless nature of this winter's snowfall. Luckily my husband recently was setting out on a not-really-necessary tidy of the driveway with the snowblower and discovered a malfunction involving spark plugs, which we got fixed. I mean, the fixing was the lucky part--because the temperatures are stubbornly stuck just below freezing and the storms keep swooping across the continent. And now we're prepped.

Part of my feeling of "when is it again?" is from being ill. I caught the flu and an infection and had a dental procedure and my body has said, "Just one thing a day." Now that I'm on the mend, I can contemplate three errands in the same day (just one trip to town, though) without quailing. 

But in spite of my complaints, I do see signs of change. For one thing, in the mornings (that also have more light, hooray!) I've been leaving my phone alone for the first hour, sometimes more, of each day. Instead, I'm writing through scenes and issues and questions in my next novel, one I've been worrying over for several years. I love the process, but it's hard to see progress daily.

However, I have filled one notebook with these pages and am partway through another. I transcribe and reflect on them weekly (or more often, depending on energy, errands, and other business), and they're holding up. 

No matter how much I've written and rewritten and written again (different from rewriting, somehow) on this novel, I haven't created as many words as we've had snowflakes this winter. (Yes, I know it's spring. A reluctant spring.) But creating is something, and some measurements mean more (to me, as yours do to you) than others.

So in spite of not working in an actual job, one that pays attention to months and the first quarter of a year, I measure things. Countable things like words, but also the uncountable, like feelings--pride in my work, a sense of progress toward coherence, learning about this big beautiful world of ours. 

I hope you're learning things and counting the things that are important to you.