I generally dislike spring clean up…ok…that’s more polite that I really feel about it…

I hate spring clean up.

I hate it almost worse than fall clean up…mainly because I put it off so long last fall, that it didn’t get done properly, and so there were more leaves and stuff left behind than should. We do pile some leaves on the flowerbed in some notion that it keeps the bulbs protected and nested for the winter…

…but that does leave a pile of flaky leaves on top, and soggy, mogey leaves on underneath to pile up and haul away.

Spring came early this year, and so there was a Saturday recently that was sunny and warm…and we got in there before the bugs go too bad. (The bugs are part of why I dislike getting in there). Lots of old dried dead plants from last year, with extra stuff mixed in…

yuck.

But we went at’er.

And then there they were…the little green reasons that make the whole spring clean up way-more-than-worth-it.

Ah…

Who woulda thunk that underneath that crappy pile of stuff that needed to be pulled, raked, cut, and thrown away were these little gems just waiting to be uncovered and enjoyed?

While I had been walking by the “yuck” for a couple of weeks, dreading the removal, these little guys had been silently growing underneath, benefiting from the blanket until they would be exposed to the warm sunshine.

Suddenly, a chore I had been dreading, became one of delight, as I carefully exposed these little gems.

I had to grab the camera to capture something that had suddenly gone from a dreaded afternoon to a highlight of the season.

Seems to me I have had experiences in my life, looking at the crappy circumstances in my life, thinking it was just gross.

Gross.

And then, after a time, gems of growth and newness emerged underneath the ugliness of the circumstances. Cocooned in the misery of life, the wonder of life emerged through the kindness of a stranger, the emergence of a till-now-hidden strength in myself, a redemption of sorts in a relationship, a realization that wouldn’t have been possible without first having experienced the crap of life.

Redemption can catch us by surprise, and by delight.

It’s something that never ceases to take my breath away. That’s one of the greatest privileges of being a therapist is to have a front row seat to this every day I go to work.