......spring cleaning

Yogis,
It has begun in earnest! The frenzy of spring cleaning. Can you feel it?

I guess we are no different from the squirrels. I watched one who was busy cleaning out, gathering leaves, carrying them up and sprucing up their home in anticipation of family. Or the birds, with their early morning excitement to get going on the day, not even waiting for the sun to rise. Dipping into my bird bath and fluffing their feathers. The energy is clearly in the air. Can you see it?

Spring is the time of year where our instinctual urge to sweep, mop, dust and polish arises. A natural call to clear away of the accumulation our collective winter slumber has blanketed upon us.  Wanting the space around us scoured and sparkling, prepared for the new we can sense is lying just ahead. Can you smell it?

When else would we have the desire to remove everything from the utility closet and get down on hands and knees to wipe the baseboards and mop the floor? Or decide to spend a Saturday morning pulling the sofa away from the wall to face what lurks behind? This week we even pulled the oven out. Yikes!

The annual cleanse is not limited to our homes. The body asks nicely (or not so nicely) to be lightened. To forego those cookies before bed and switch from heavy stews to steamed artichokes and roasted asparagus. It too yearns to be ready for the activities ahead. Can you taste it?

And don’t forget the yard…….When you walk out the door in spring you can hear the spring cleaning. Mowers, trimmers and blowers creating a steady hum. Lawns and gardens being cleared and primped to await the incoming rainbow of colors. Our yard an extension of us. Can  you hear it?

Spring cleaning is hard work, as any squirrel can tell you! I don’t own a leaf blower so back down on my hands and knees I go as I lift soggy clumps of leaves from deep within the ivy. Up and down, up and down. Reach this way, lift this, move this. Even climb behind the heat pumps, reaching my hand down into who knows what. By nighttime my body reminds me of each of my movements. But it’s what I refer to as a ‘good hurt.’ Removing the winter lethargy from my joints. An inner rinse that they thank me for. Can you imagine it?

We clean and vacuum our cars. Launder the bedding. Power wash the house and finally throw out the leftovers in the back of the frig. The more we do…..the more we notice needs to be done.

The spring rains soak a quickly melting earth, reminding us that this is the season of water. An annual wash of the world. I think in the next warm rain I will stand out there, opening my arms to the sky and let myself be drenched.

Want to join me?

Windowsills next,
SARAH