February doodle...

February, the runt month of the year, a time for purification – at least it was in Roman times.

The name itself comes from the Roman month Februarius which was named after the Latin februum, meaning purification. The Romans held purification rituals throughout February, the biggest being the ritual of Februa which was held on February 15 (full moon) in the old lunar Roman calendar.

It’s a clean month, cold and cleansing, a preparation for the spring, but not yet beyond winter.

Of course I have my own purification rituals, some of them not so pure, and one of the ways I get things out is through doodling. I used to doodle all of the time in meetings. It wasn’t always appreciated, although in reality I often didn’t even know I was doing it. In some ways it’s an unconscious action and often my unconsciousness drips out onto the paper.

Today, after I’d done the hovering, steam mopped the hallway and prepared our evening meal, I stopped for a few minutes to listen to the radio. As I listened I picked up my pen and doodled. I was thinking about February and how it would soon be time to start sowing seeds. My pen moved back and forth creating patterns, dotting here, drawing lines there, as I listened to the radio, thought about seeds and doodled.

I had almost no idea what I was doing as I doodled, listened to the radio and thought about the plants that would grow from the seeds I would soon be planting. It was almost hypnotic, the listening, thinking, doodling, my mind not really concentrating on any of it, my pen aimlessly moving on the paper, my mind drifting to spring, the drone of Radio 4 in the background. They were talking about wheat, as I thought about seeds, and made unconscious marks on the notepad I keep by my laptop, cleansing my mind with my doodling.

And this is it - my February doodle. I don't know what it is or where it came from, but I don't suppose it matters.