Spring Cleaning

It isn't just about the dust. Changing channels you catch a glimpse of a Hoarders episode and something looks familiar. You decide to begin with something relatively easy like the outside utility room. Three days later you emerge with the neighbor's lost ferret and what may be Jimmy Hoffa's wallet. And for every gust of cleansing your blower provides, the winds of March send twelve layers of pollen back in the door.

Armed with more protective gear than the Ghostbusters, you never look back. It was never meant to be easy. The challenge of spring cleaning is an integral part of the process. There has to be an element of obstacle course to the cleaning. And by obstacle course, we are not talking Chuck E Cheese plastic balls. You need to navigate a mine field surrounded by hurdles that would make a Navy Seal cry. Rogue bocce balls roll underneath your feet as you straddle a falling ladder and an extension pole with a large threatening blade swings overhead.

You prioritize. You decide to make a path. Casting personal safety aside, you plunge through the charcoal briquettes and tiki torches and dust off the spider webs. Now you know how Indiana Jones felt. You wonder for the tenth year why you are keeping an ax with a blade attached by duct tape. You toss the ax. Why do you have so many boxes of Miracle Gro ? Are you a scientist planning a new mutation ? And why are all the boxes wet ? The wet boxes join the ax. You notice a rack designed for fishing equipment hangs empty on the wall. You similarly notice fishing poles and rods leaning against every wall. Reunited and it feels so good...

Based on the amount of Round Up you uncover, your fear of poison ivy may require professional help. Tackle and tool boxes border every shelf. Speaking of shelves, why have you never had that one board cut to fit the shelf. You have almost been knocked unconscious and yet you let it remain year after year. This year, you remove it. This is the year. This is the time. You drag out many items of many sizes with no purpose. You have been hanging on to them because they remind you of a person or event or you think they can be repaired. You keep the sentimental treasures but you let go of the things that are just getting in your way.

When you complete a project you feel a sense of satisfaction and motivation to begin the next venture. Cleaning the shed is more than tidying up a bit. You purge. You purify. You have a sense of renewal.

Perhaps you gave up something for Lent. You did a little soul sweeping and determined what should go and what should remain. The disposal of internal trash can be attained through methods other than juicing. Prayer, meditation, music and self-reflection are but a few ways to cleanse your inner being.

Remember that you are dust and as dust you shall return. Maybe it is about the dust.