Spring is in the air!

It's March and spring is here! It's one week since I am done with the radiation -- my throat is fine now and so is my skin though I am very sensitive to the sun. My skin was burning yesterday since we spent a few hours outside. I think it will be tough for me to remember to apply sunscreen all the time -- so please remind me whenever you see me!

It strikes me that every culture and/or religion likes to celebrate spring in it's own way ... for example, in my home country Moldova, there is this wonderful tradition of 'Martsishor' where for the first few weeks of spring everyone wears a small ornament of white and red flowers which are a symbols of a long time legend about life and love that are renewed each spring. At the end of 2 weeks those in love exchange the martsishors, others hang them on the trees for good luck.... I came across one three years ago when we were home -- it's in my hand in the picture below.

And in my Faith, I am a Baha'i, there's 4 days of celebration where everyone exchanges gifts and loads up on good food, cause fasting comes next (in fact, it starts tomorrow and will go on for 19 days). Fasting is the time of spiritual and physical purification for the soul and body, a time to meditate upon the year that's about to end while setting new goals for the year to come. Of course, while I can't do the physical part of the fast this year I've got a lot to pray about -- the gratitude of another year to live and see my baby grow, my husband who stood by my side in the good, the bad and the most ugly days of my life, my co-workers who've supported me and my family throughout the treatment, my friends that I truly know are 'friends indeed' and all the random new people that have entered our life for a not so random purpose of help in need.

Likewise, in the Russian Orthodox tradition, there is a period of "Maslenitsa" right before the Great Lent where for a week everyone enjoys bliny (a cross between crepes and pancakes), with the last day of maslenitsa being the Forgiveness day, when we say to each other "God forgives so I forgive". In fact, we had a mini celebration of maslenitsa and my end of treatment a week ago with a few girlfriends of mine .... see another picture below and notice the huge contrast of my hair then and now!

Martsishor on the cherry blosom tree

Celebrating Russian Maslenitsa