Hello dearest Reader!
Good evening and welcome back to the blog. It's time for our mid-week blog post, and because we've just completed our "Life-Giving Relationships Series," I thought it was time to begin a new one!
Here in the Midwest, Springtime isn't like a pretty postcard: it's gray, dirty, watery, and often kind of depressing. Our lawns are dead and our skies threaten snow, even in APRIL! So to combat all of this nasty gray, I've taken up the habit of Spring Cleaning.
I'm not a huge fan of restarting life over New Years: for me, Spring is the best time to start fresh. As the earth begins awakening for summer, I like to reawaken my home, my heart, and my habits to prepare for the warmth of summer!
So for the next few weeks, as I'm drowning in this weird gray sky, I thought it would be fun to talk about cleaning, restarting, and how we can refresh our lives and homes to better thrive in the world. So welcome, dearest Reader, to our Spring Cleaning Series!
Let's dive in.
The End Result: A Flourishing Life
I think that one of the best things about cleaning out our lives and homes is the end result. There is nothing better than sitting in a freshly cleaned room or looking at a freshly scheduled planner. There is something so positive and energizing about being surrounded in a tidy environment!
I truly believe that a clean environment is the key to inner peace. I believe that our environment greatly affects our mood, our hearts, and our productivity. As we clean, we make room for fresh life, more energy, and true happiness to invade our hearts.
We can clean out our homes and enjoy the tidy environments, but we can also clean out our relationships, our habits, and our routines. Last year I began a "Spring Cleaning" with my nutrition, and I have GREATLY enjoyed the end results a year later of a fitter body and happier heart!
Basically, cleaning out any area of your life, home or otherwise, will help you FLOURISH. Taking the chaos and putting it into order is one of our human duties. It will always leave you with a feeling of satisfaction and happiness because it is truly a blessing to be surrounded in cleanliness and order.
But what about the "process" of cleaning?
So yes: the end results of a good clean are SUPER awesome! It's really great to live in a flourishing environment and to be surrounded by "order." But what about the process of "ordering" chaos? Do we just need to grin and bear it while we're cleaning, or does the process have merit?
I definitely think that the process of cleaning has merit. It can teach us a lot about ourselves, the world, and the cycle of life. Cleaning helps us reset, refresh, and improve our lives, but the actual process can help us become more disciplined, faithful, and humble.
It's no secret that cleaning isn't exactly glamorous: many wealthy people like to shirk off their cleaning onto hired help! But I have come to love the process of cleaning. It fills me with satisfaction to "order" the chaos and to set my hands up to do good and positive work.
Cleaning has helped me get in touch with the cyclical nature of life: things that start wonderful and beautiful eventually become faded and gross, but with a little care, attention, and time, they can be restored to their original glory!
The fact is that cleaning isn't just a one-time thing: it's a lifelong process that needs regular attention. Just as the earth goes through a seasonal pattern of blossoming, dying, and being reborn every year, so do the things in our lives.
Slowing down to care for our items, to think through our routines, and to monitor our hearts is a worthy and life-giving process. Ultimately, the practice of habitually and consistently cleaning our homes and lives is will help us build character and adds a nice cyclical routine to our lives!
In Total...
Throughout this series we will be looking into various areas of life through the lens of "Spring Cleaning." How can we effectively clean out our habits, our hearts, our homes, and our routines? How can we enjoy the process and begin to thrive?
I'm not an amazing cleaning guru, but I'm excited to learn alongside all of you throughout the next 5 weeks. Thank you so much for reading, and in the meantime, I hope you can enjoy all these "April showers."
Blessings to you dearest Reader,
xoxo,
Cait