March Notes

Spring baby, spring birds, spring buds 🌱

Robins

Last March, I came home from dropping the kids off at school to find our side yard covered in robins and cedar waxwings. It had just rained heavily, and the giant holly beside our porch was dropping its red berries in profusion. The birds were going bonkers—full revelry—and I listened to their delighted chatter all morning long.

The abundance of it all struck me. I often view my life through the lens of scarcity—what do I need, what does my family need, and how can I manipulate, scrounge, grasp, etc., to obtain those perceived necessities? At that time we were three months into a house renovation with a never-ending to-do list and limited energy, time, and funds. I was wrestling with failed treatment for some health issues, and the lack was weighing on me.

And yet, here were hundreds of birds, feasting on berries they had not bought or scrounged for. It was a gift of abundance, and their response was simply joy. I’ve long loved the biblical passage from Matthew 6, where Jesus encourages those around him (who are living in poverty and lack) to:

“Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”

On that day in March, the robins and the waxwings eating the holly berries were such a beautiful picture of this passage that I wrote a poem about it (see below). And when we found out we were pregnant with a baby girl due in March 2026, we named her Robin. She is a gift, a reminder of the abundance around us when we are tempted to live in scarcity.¹ She is here, and we are all reveling in her presence, despite the lack of sleep. What joy!

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Audubon, John James. Audubon’s Watercolors Pl. 9A, American Robin. Audubon Art, Oppenheimer Editions, https://www.audubonart.com/product/audubons-watercolors-pl-9a-american-robin/

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Manna

The first of the March rains

has made the holly drop her berries.

A red carpet for the robins and the waxwings to feast upon.

A shower of sweet abundance

like manna in the desert.

I’ve been listening to their joyful chorus all morning

how the worship warbles without effort.

No begrudge or grumble,

simply bird song.

Oh that I were a robin

then might my heart overflow

in humble gratitude

for my daily bread.

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Flower Updates 🌱

Pots, pots, pots.

I call these my Monty Don pots. The common term is lasagne pots, but essentially it’s layering bulbs tightly in pots in the fall for a beautiful spring display. This March they have not disappointed, and they are not complicated at all. I raid the Lidl bulb section in the fall (I spent maybe $50?) and cram 2-3 layers of tulips and daffodils into my porch pots, and top them off with violas. As long as the bulbs aren’t touching, the more you put in the fuller the pots will look come spring. I’ve gotten three weeks of beauty out of these, and they’re still going strong.

Right now, my Iceland poppies, daffodils, and tulips are blooming. Yellow cheerfulness is probably my favorite, it smells divine to me and absolutely lives up to its name. However my mom thinks it smells like a diaper, which apparently is a real thing—people smell narcissus differently. Who knew?

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1. I read a book in January by Robin Wall Kimmerer called The Serviceberry, and she dives into the concept of abundance in such a lovely way. A few quotes:

“Recognizing ‘enoughness’ is a radical act in an economy that is always urging us to consume more.”

“In a gift economy . . . the practice for dealing with abundance is to give it away. . . The currency in a gift economy is relationship, which is expressed as gratitude, as interdependence and the ongoing cycles of reciprocity.”