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Spring Cleaning

Watercolor by Maddie Jane, 7.

It's springtime in New England, which is really more like a holding pattern that I relate to my days working in the prison; when an inmate had a release day, but it could be held up by paperwork, or could actually happen and they could run out of the prison and dance in the parking lot. Well, that never happened (that I saw), but I would run outside and dance on the street if it happened to hit somewhere in the 50 to 60 degree range upon my waking up in the morning.

All I could think about on the walk to drop Maddie off at school today is I just want my toes and/or my fingers to stop being cold. I love living here and would not trade a summer evening or fall day for the world...but I would definitely trade 32 degrees the week before April.

While the new year is all about new year-new me and resolutions, I think it takes until spring for people to really start feeling like a new year is here, especially since spring tends to be synonymous with cleaning and fresh starts. I am a person who is all about cleaning, and really wish I would have shared my secret method of purging and minimalism before Maria K did (trick: if your kids are out of the house go through their toy boxes and get rid of 30% of it, that will bring you some joy). This spring, I set aside a Saturday after my long run for all of us to pitch in and purge, and Maddie has been helping me to make a list of tasks in preparation. I cannot wait to put bulky winter clothes away in their basement bins, clear out all the random Christmas stocking stuffer toys that weren't meant to make it through January and get rid of any and everything that is not necessary to have hanging around. Of all the hundreds of things that give me anxiety, clutter and having too many things and not enough space makes it in the top ten and the feeling of a clean, organized space equates to a high for me (so weird, I know).

The spring cleaning urge has spilled over from home to other aspects of my life; I have been unsubscribing from emails at a rate of about 10 lists per day, which has made an incredible difference in my inbox. As a perpetual people pleaser, I actually feel guilty about hitting that unsubscribe button, imagining someone at the other end watching their subscribers go down by one and hurting their feelings. But, alas, I just don't need a thrice daily email from a water bottle company I bought from once showing me all the water bottles I do not need to add to my already burgeoning collection.

I have also tried to declutter my life a bit, thinking not so much about what brings me joy, but what I can remove that causes anxiety: Facebook friends with nothing positive to say, social commitments that are less important than family or alone time, even rethinking my current career goals and where I can simplify and refine where I am and where I want to be.

As the tulips try and push themselves up over the next few weeks, here is to lifting our own faces to the sunshine and experiencing our own growth.

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