“Spring shows what God can do with a drab and dirty world.”
~Virgil A. Kraft

This is that rare time in Minnesota when the sun can be shining and the warmth of spring is creeping into the greater part of each day while piles of still crusty, now black snow lies in piles on boulevards and street corners. I am looking out my office window right now at two such piles, still over five feet high and ugly beyond belief, that are not giving up the ghost to the emergence of the new season. They are holding on for dear life.

In addition to these horrible piles there is also the leftover stuff that somehow got swept up in the wind, the snow plow and the fury of winter.This ‘stuff’ includes discarded bottles of all kinds, wrappers from every manner of junk food, little bits of a fender or headlight lost in a collision of icy conditions. These are the normal things. There are also other odd things like the tiny tennis shoe lost perhaps in a mad dash for the car as snow took its owner, or its owner’s parent, by surprise.

Yesterday I saw a blue latex glove, several pens and cigarette lighters, a tiny, puffy black mitten, a pair of sturdy boxer shorts.  After a while it gets embarrassing to look down at people’s lost things that are now emerging from the mounds that have kept us company these many months. Perhaps the most depressing are the Christmas decorations that now stand askew. No white, shimmery back drop provides a context for the manger scenes, the Santas and the sad little reindeer. A few days ago I even saw a plastic ghost holding a jack ‘o lantern head. It had finally made a post-snow reappearing act either very late or very early for next Halloween.

Aside from the sheer messiness of this not-quite-spring experience, I have to admit to being intrigued by this leftover stuff from the season and its holidays gone by. It reminds me of all the ‘stuff’ of my own life that I sweep under the rug, under the piles until something melts and they reappear, whether I like it or not. I think of the grudges, the frustrations and the outright anger I manage to hide beneath a smile or words that have been chosen to not give away my true feelings. I am reminded of the garbage I carry from past wounds, from destructive behaviors or deep hurts that can stay hidden until just the right situation is created to bring all those old pains to the light of day. Any of this sound familiar to you?

Maybe this is, at least in part, what Lent is about. We have the opportunity during these 40 days of reflection and spiritual searching to, slowly, allow the melting of the ice we can build around our true selves. As we face our wilderness companions, things that may not bring us life, practices that keep us from being a reflection of God in the world, we often recognize the junk that is hidden beneath the cold, hard surface with which we have been surrounded. As we walk further into the light, with the lengthening of days and the promise of the new life of Easter, we can anticipate what a spring clean up might look like: Prayers are said. Shoulders relax. Truth is spoken. Forgiveness is offered. Kindness becomes a gift. Hope is found. Justice becomes a priority. Love becomes more than a word.

Our days are becoming warmer and warmer. Rain is promised for later in the week. The clean up is beginning.