Spring Cleaning

Each spring of my childhood, my mother and grandmother would pick a Saturday in the early spring and do their spring cleaning.  They cleaned regularly but this Saturday was a time for the most extensive sort of clearing out and cleaning up.  They had my father and grandfather up on ladders, cleaning gutters, washing windows, taking shutters off to hose them down--and inside the house every curtain was coming down, every sheet and blanket was peeled off the beds and buckets of Lysol scented water made their way throughout the house for shelves and walls and floors to be scoured.  This cleaning was so extensive that it required some preparation and coordination--the date was chosen and we all knew to prepare for spring cleaning well in advance--and it took the full day--we started at 7 am and usually didn't finish until after dinner when the last curtains went back up and the beds were reassembled just in time to collapse into them. There was also something really refreshing and beautiful that spring cleaning gave us--everything looked and smelled newer, fresher--and the light in the house was different as the season changed outside.  There was something satisfying about the alignment between the world outside the house and inside of it.

Looking back, one thing I appreciate about those spring cleaning days was the fresh start, the reset.  Nothing really changed and still, it all felt different.  Sometimes we need just that--a reason to look at what we are used to seeing with a new set of eyes.  Spring cleaning always brought that shift in perspective.  Through the clean windows and freshly washed curtains, the light was brighter and the outside world was more vibrant.  The fresh scent of outside would come off the curtains for days after they had been dried on the clothesline.  It strikes me that sometimes life and our looking at it calls out for a reset.  It is possible to make that happen in our lives when we need it.  I know I was feeling sort of tired and as if my energy was dragging.  I decided to do a fruit cleanse--and put it on the calendar for after two big events I had been dreading, just to create a fresh start for myself.  If there is something you are feeling not quite happy about, maybe it's time for a spring cleaning of sorts.  Where are you stuck and what would cause a shift? Maybe you have found yourself being snappy with your loved ones.  Take a day off, an evening off, or if you can swing it, a weekend away.  Maybe you are feeling tired.  Cut out TV and be in bed by 9 with a good book for a week.  Perhaps you are wanting to restart your exercise routine.  Take a walk after work or first thing in the morning.  Maybe your schedule feels too busy.  Schedule 2 or 3 hours of open space for yourself once a week for a month.  What the reset looks like depends on what you want to shift, but take a lesson from my grandmother--put it on the calendar and then commit to it with all your energy. Get others involved in your project.  And then appreciate what's different, knowing you have the option to create that shift any time you choose.