one little thing at a time
a spring clean or an autumn sort, depending on where and how you live
We’re going on a month of rain but here’s the ruby camellias that grow in my garden, against the shed that’s dilapidated and the blue sky that lasted for just long enough to dry two loads of washing on the line. It’s these small wins, these gentle reprieves, that offer a bit of breathing space in the day. They always exist, in one way or another, but they do require a certain amount of awareness. Not focussed attention per se, but the ability to notice. Noticing is a gentler form of paying attention, I think. I like what Simone Weil says: ‘attention is prayer’. There’s nothing brash or blatant about it; it’s a quiet and private practise, regardless of where you are, at all hours of day and night.
Change is overtly visible in spring and autumn, as buds swell and open, leaves brown and fall. It is the burst of colour and the diffusing of it, and isn’t it a bit magical that these two events happen simultaneously, on opposite sides of the earth. Some of us fling open the windows and swap wool for cotton, others settle into quieter days, reaching for an extra blanket and a comfort cup of something hot.
Anyway, how are you doing? Are you reading this with tea in hand, or a small person sleeping in the crook of your arm? Maybe you’re just taking a breather before the week begins and demands increase and you wonder, yet again: what shall I cook for dinner? Perhaps you’re a bit like spring - feeling fickle - not sure what to do next, sitting in the uncomfortable not knowing which is always fertile ground for brilliant ideas.
The turn of the season is welcomed because it offers a blank slate, of sorts. But a blank slate can also be overwhelming, for the simple fact that we’re expected to ‘make the most of it’. I don’t think life works like that. Of course I consider what it would be like to clear the calendar and embark on methodical and thorough spring clean; windows open, bright sun, daffodils in vases, enough of a freesia-infused breeze to dry all the sheets on the washing line.
The truth is I’ll be spring cleaning in little pockets of time that exist between doing all the other things. Maybe your spring cleaning ideals are as far-fetched as mine, so perhaps you will be sprucing in increments, too, hoping for a little bit of space between finished and undone again.