Month-in-Review Highlights: March 2025

Arnaud likes capturing funny pictures of me and sometimes I make it easy. Le Mans, France. March 8, 2025.

I postmortem each month shortly after it ends. Previously, I used these posts to hold myself accountable on progress toward my annual goals. Starting in January 2023, I broadened these posts to address more generally my observations and experiences for the month. (To read previous months’ reviews, click here.)

Europe changed to summer time late in the month, which has made it feel suddenly like spring. Nothing like having more light in the evenings to bring this hibernating bear into the new season.

Yep, the month of March, especially as it progressed and got warmer and sunnier, saw me gradually emerging from winter mode. I saw friends more often and even wandered a bit more. Thanks to having less and less need for gloves, I even managed to take more photos in the later weeks. All the flowers and flowering trees everywhere helped inspire me, though, so they get a lot of the credit.

While this bear still hibernated with her story-weaving early in the month, however, I had a computer death that I had hoped to delay until the summer. I had to buy a new laptop posthaste. (Ugh. But! It sure is beautiful and oh, the things it can do.) My advice: Do not wait until your nearly nine-year-old computer goes complete kaput to buy a new one. I was in misery for nearly two weeks waiting for my new device to arrive. And while we can indeed do a lot on our phones these days, there is quite a lot we cannot do (or cannot do too efficiently).

Despite the computer headwinds, I managed to finish one massive round of revision for a novel manuscript I have in progress (one of what will be many revision drafts, but still, I’ll take the win). With that done, I needed to put my writing brain into something else for a while. I’m working on the plan for the next novel while the one I just revised rests a bit so that I can see it more clearly.

While the change of pace from revising to planning helps a lot with reviving my energies for the work, the mental load doesn’t diminish. I spent the last couple of weeks of March struggling forward with my plan, hitting a wall, starting over, and repeat. At least I’ve done this enough times before to know that this is part of the process and that I’ll get there. Eventually.

Otherwise, other work ensued, as did taxes and all the other life administrative efforts, but who wants to hear about that? I don’t even want to do it all (though do it all I must).

To end on a much more fun note, we got over to Le Mans, France, to celebrate the birthday of my mother-in-law and we took a day trip over to Aix-les-Bains in France to see an aunt and uncle of my spouse who go to the tiny town every March to “take the waters.” We also went to see a production of Ionesco’s “Rhinoceros” here in Lausanne and I saw several friends over the course of the month at different lunches and brunches. (Friend time is so wonderfully rejuvenating. I’ll take that over “the waters” any day.)

April and the months ahead will be much more out and about in the world. I’ll need to get back into my groove of balancing work and play much more than I’ve needed to do over the course of these quiet, inward-focused winter months. As much as I’ve loved and benefited from hibernation season, though, I’m ready for the adventures ahead. Bring ‘em on.