S8 E50: Getting Ready For Spring

Hey, thanks for being here. Today's episode, it's from a few seasons back,

and I was reminded about it this past week as I've had the urge to dive into

some cleaning and some different projects around the house.

And I remember that I did an episode about spring cleaning that was called Spring

Cleaning Spirit, Soul, and Body.

So I went and found it, and I wanted to share it with you guys as we are heading

into the season of spring.

And speaking of heading into spring.

And if you receive Sunday emails from me, then you already know this,

but the She Is Awakening spring journal is now available to order.

And if you're interested in grabbing a journal for yourself,

I'll have that information in the show notes, as well as information on how

you can get on the email list.

I would love to have you be one of the ones that hears things first from me

and one that is able to stay connected even when social media platforms forms have glitches.

So you can check out the show notes and find information for either of those things.

I was actually looking through the New Spring Journal earlier this morning and

just taking some time to look through and read some of the weekly focus pages.

And I just got excited all over again thinking about you reading the words on

the pages and working through the journal prompts and just intentionally creating

the space for growth in your life in this spring season,

which goes right along with today's episode talking about spring cleaning that

ends with inviting you to ask yourself,

what is dying to spring up out of you in this season that you need to make room for?

So I hope you enjoy this episode from season five.

Happy spring, friends.

You know, with the welcoming of spring, I want to invite you to some good old spring cleaning.

And I'm not just talking about purging your pantry, but I'm inviting you to

spring cleaning spirit, soul, and body.

You know, what is it about spring that makes us want to throw open the windows and get moving?

I think it's the sunshine and the warmer days that just gives us this energy

boost. I always say that fall is my favorite until spring comes around.

And I admit that I am not exactly a lover of cleaning, but I am a lover of growing.

So if I've got to do a little cleaning to make room for some growth, then I am here for it.

Okay, so I'm pretty sure that we all know what spring cleaning looks like in

our homes, but what does that look like for the rest of our lives?

How can we declutter our lives, our spirits, our souls, and our bodies?

To keep it simple and in ways that we are all familiar with,

I'm going to stay with this idea of spring cleaning as it pertains to our homes. You ready?

Let's go. So one of the ways that we do spring cleaning in our homes can be

through purging and decluttering.

Decluttering this is where we take time to inventory and sort through all the things,

we we get rid of things that are broken and

no longer working that we've just pushed to the side or still sitting on the

counter or whatever we decide to do away with things that used to mean something

to us but no longer add any value to us or our homes anymore I know for me I

can and put off this decluttering activity because it's not a quick process.

And I have more than once started it and then had it drag on for what seemed like forever.

But here's a really important thing about this purging and decluttering process.

You have got to finish. It is a process. You've got to finish the process.

It's not a quick fix. It is a process. And I know I'm not not the only person

that has taken time to do all the sorting and separating all the things of what's going where.

And at the end of that, either move that stack or stacks of things to another

side of the room or another part of the house or a trunk of a car,

which means we are still in possession of it.

We are still lugging it around.

I think it was last spring that I shared shared on the podcast,

how I was finally letting go of some of the things that I had sorted through.

Myself for the past several years.

I had this big aha moment as I found myself agonizing as I sorted through some

of the exact same things that I had sorted through for the past several years.

I would sort through all these things and put them in the piles only to end

up keeping most of everything again.

And I just, the aha moment was I realized that I was guilty of doing this exact

same thing in other areas of my life.

I kept hanging on to things that no longer fit me anymore or things that I used

to love, but I hadn't for a while.

But for some reason, I still struggled with completely letting go of whatever that thing was.

Maybe that's you. Maybe you can relate to to that. Maybe you need to say a final

goodbye to things that no longer fit you anymore, physically or spiritually.

And trust me, I feel your pain. It is hard when that thing was once a favorite

of ours and it brought us so much joy.

And I think that's the trigger for us. I think that there's still this element

of comfort and familiarity.

And I think that's the hard thing for us, because when we look at that item

or that thing or the relationship or activity, whatever it is,

I'm connecting it, obviously, across the board from our homes to our personal lives.

There's still this element of nostalgia whatever it is of memories around that thing.

And that brought us joy so it's like it's hard

for us to separate that season

ending and we have to reframe that that just because something that no longer

is serving us in this season doesn't mean it's a bad thing and it doesn't have

to be a negative thing but we have to realize realize that it's holding us back

from something in our next season that we need to make room for.

So we have to stay with the process and finish it out.

It doesn't do us any good to just recognize what activities or relationships

don't need to take up space in our lives anymore, but we have to take it a step further.

We have to finish the process and take the necessary steps to adjust just schedules

and create boundaries that are going to create the space and make room for what

is going to grow in this next season of our lives.

Another exciting and positive thing about purging and decluttering is sometimes

we find, we discover something once again that brought us joy in our life.

Somehow in the busyness of life, something had been placed on top of it and

who had gotten lost in a stack of things or whatever the scenario,

but we've just gotten busy and something that has that.

Brought nourishment to our life and brought us joy that we had lost, we find it.

As we start to move things away and clear out and clean and purge some of these

things, we are going to find these hidden jewels that we are reminded once again

of like, oh, this was something that brought life to me.

And it's such a gift to find those things. And let me say, some things go missing

and that's That's a good thing.

So when we find them, we're like, oh, I didn't even realize I had lost this

and I don't need this anymore. I've outgrown this. Okay.

That's a good thing. But then there's some things that we have lost that did

bring life to us that need to be found again.

And those things, then we take those things, we dust them off,

we bring them back out, we set them back out, and we allow ourselves to once

again experience the joy that those things bring to us.

Okay. Okay, now to the fun part, deep cleaning.

After you have taken the time and cleared off all the surface level stuff,

it is time for the hard work of a good deep clean.

And a deep cleaning in our lives can feel similar to a deep cleaning in the

rooms of our physical homes.

Meaning it takes a lot of effort.

Effort physical effort emotional effort

oh goodness it takes a lot of effort and

it takes a great commitment to the process maybe

I'm just speaking for myself but it takes some commitment to the process because

how many of you have experienced cleaning something only for that to turn into

a much longer process than expected as you uncovered and discovered discovered

more more mess as you cleaned deeper.

You know, oftentimes you find yourself on your knees when you're deep cleaning

away, you know, and you become achy and you become tired because you're not

seeing the progress that you're working towards as quickly as you had hoped for.

Those stains and those things that have gotten down into cracks aren't easily just swept away.

Like I said, I mean, we are down on our hands and knees scrubbing. It takes lots of work.

But here's the thing. You got to stay with it. You got to stay with it.

It might take longer than you hoped or expected, but the peace and the delight

that comes from staying with this process is so worth it.

I mean, how many of you have spent time cleaning something that you did not

want to take the time to clean?

And in the end, the joy of just looking back on that and when you are in a more

peaceful and relaxed state, it is so worth it when it is done.

And it's the same Same thing in our lives.

It's not fun when you're in the hard part of working through the deep cleaning

of our souls and our bodies,

whatever that means, whatever that means for you, because we're all in different

situations and different circumstances.

So that's going to mean something different for each of us. So whatever that

means for you, it's hard work for each and every one of us.

It's going to be different things, but it's hard work if we are doing the work.

But I want to encourage you to stay with it because at the end of the day,

it's going to bring you peace and joy that you won't experience without putting

in the work, doing the hard work and staying with the process.

There's a verse that this past week with the arrival of spring that has just

been in my heart that I've reread different verses of it. I've made a few social

media posts about it, but it's from Song of Solomon, chapter 2, verses 11 through 13.

And it says, the season has changed.

The bondage of your barren winter has ended, and the season of hiding is over and gone.

The rains have soaked the earth and left it bright with blossoming flowers.

The season for singing and pruning the vines has arrived.

I hear the a cooing of doves in our land, filling the air with songs to awaken you and guide you forth.

Can you not discern this new day of destiny breaking forth around you?

The early signs of my purposes and plans are bursting forth.

The budding vines of new life are now blooming everywhere.

The fragrance of their flowers whispers. There is change in the air.

Arise, my love, my beautiful companion, and run with me to the higher place.

For now is the time to arise and come away with me.

I love so many aspects of those verses. I've broken some of them down in different

ways and shared them, like I said, over the past week.

But each of them just speaks to so many different things.

And it just stirs up hope. I love the change of seasons.

I love the change of seasons and the hope that it brings like the beginning of a new week.

And the fresh mercies that we have each and every day.

Seasons are a beautiful thing. And here's the thing, wherever you find yourself

today, whether you are in the midst of a hard season or you're living your best

life, seasons come and they go.

So enjoy every day and take from each day what it has to offer you.

And know that God is with you no matter what season you find yourself in today.

But here's what I want to end with. I want to end with a question.

And that question is, what is dying to spring up out of you in the season that

you need to make room for?

What is dying to spring up out of you in this season that you need to make room for?

Because here's what I invite you to do. I invite you to take the time. Do the work.

Because what will spring forth, it's going to be beautiful and it's going to be totally worth it.

Love you, friend. Talk soon.