Spring, the great gushing forth of Life Force, loosened
winter’s grip melting the snow and, in amongst the snowdrops and crocuses, we
are confronted with the fall chores left undone due to the sudden onslaught of
late fall snow. The neighbor’s bags of
last year’s leaves are still sitting by the garden gate; the now ossified dog
poop had been safely buried under snow; the heartbreak of broken rose and
butterfly bush branches; the collapsed attempt that a mini hoop house; the perennial
seed heads that looked so lovely in the early fall. Looking out from the deck, it seemed like the
past was getting in the way of enjoying the present! What happened to the beauty we expect spring
to bring?
The beauty of early springtime, like all beauty, often lies
hidden among the detritus of life. We do
our personal work in order to step forward in our lives but find that we drag
left over issues around after ourselves like so much unpacked baggage from that
trip we thought would last forever.
Eventually the baggage insists on being unpacked. And because somewhere within ourselves we
know that our own beauty awaits us, we dig in and do the work. Perhaps it’s because our beauty shines even
through the mess.
And so we go out with our rakes and shovels. We gather the bags of leaves and spread them
out for the strengthening sun to dry before mowing them up for this year’s
mulch. We roam the yard cleaning up
after the dog and find tiny stands of delicate miniature lavender crocuses that
we might have overlooked had we not had out eyes peeled. We cut back the broken stems of rose bushes
and find the wonder of new shoots where we had despaired of finding any life at
all.
As we get through chore after chore, and take a moment to
sit back and enjoy the results I recognize that the work is worth the doing.
And so it is with our lives.
We want to rush out and meet the exuberant energy of the spring with our
own joy. But our joy may be muted. It may be hidden under layers of memory or
feelings locked away in some corner of our minds that keep leaking out, no
matter how hard we try to keep it locked away.
As life would have it, the less willing we are to look, the larger the
feelings, out, outworn thoughts or memories become.
It isn’t until we turn and look them squarely in the eye
that come down to their true size and we can see them as they truly are:
memories rather than reality. Memories,
once they have been cut back down to size, that can offer up their gifts.
So, just like the early spring clean up chores, so de we
clear out the detritus of our lives, finding our beauty that wishes to
shine. Blessed be the spring!
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