If you want to become full, let yourself be empty. Tao te Ching
God is not found in the soul by adding anything but by a process of subtraction.
Meister Eckhart
These unusually warm days (for March in MN) I’ve been thinking about spring, about change and transformation, about shedding, molting, loosening.
In the spirit of this week’s New Moon, final Uranus/Pluto Square, Solar Eclipse, and Spring Equinox—all of which support spring cleaning: the release of what is old, worn and dusty so that new, fresh and joyful energies can sprout, grow and blossom—I offer this poem, written nearly five years ago, at the beginning of what has turned out to be a long period of personal transformation.
A Good Shake
Back stoop on a sunny day
firm grip on the rug
flick of the wrists
SNAP!
SNAP!
Dust, crumbs, lint, cat hair
flung into the breeze.
If only I could as easily
grab hold of my life,
(rag rug of experiences, places, people,
fears, thoughts, desires)
flick my wrists
and dust, lint, crumbs
would fly off
with a satisfying SNAP!
Not washed clean,
but shaken free of everything that no longer belongs,
aired and light
and ready for visitors.
In the coming weeks may we shake free all that weighs us down,
bravely open our doors for visitors,
and playfully explore creating ourselves anew.
SNAP!
I love this line, Anne: “Not washed clean, but shaken free of everything that no longer belongs” 🙂
SNAP!
I could hear the ‘snap’ in your poem- the snap that says wake up,, pay attention…..
thank you for the reminder of the gifts of spring cleaning! in so many different ways
Mary
I absolutely love this poem!
I’m glad Holli!
I see your poem so easily.
Good!
I got the snakes. Never thought of them as spring emblems, but they work.
Shedding their skins–transformation!
I love the poem, Anne!
Thank you Barb.