The month of March signals a fresh start. After the dark and cold winter months, we celebrate spring. Daylight hours begin to exceed those of night, and the sap rises in the trees. Crocuses and daffodils flower, the sun feels warm on the skin again, and we prepare for Easter. Make no mistake, March is not all sunshine and clover. This is a turbulent time, particularly in regard to weather; lashing rain can alternate with heavy snow, pelting hail, and raw wind. Turbulence is to be expected of big transitions from one season (or state of consciousness) to another. Jesus was a great example-his coming was expected by the Jews in His time to usher in the end of Roman domination and a golden age. Little did they realize how Jesus would shake the very foundations of the world.
Transition, a theme which we pondered recently, involves moving from one state of mind or situation to another. That move, like any, often involves “cleaning house.” Transition is not an easy state in which to dwell. Roy Berkowitz and Margaret Morgan Maat both have talked with us about “the neutral zone” and “the hallway,” that scary place between one life situation and another, a sort of “no man’s land” where, like a trapeze artist, we have let go of something before we can grasp something else. We must close one door before opening another. We are briefly in free fall, neither here nor there. It takes a lot of courage (and our Unity principles) to walk this path. And cleaning house is part of the process.
I have noticed in myself a powerful urge to clean when change is imminent. When a transition is looming, such as a trip out of town, dusting and polishing become irresistible. I feel compelled to sweep, wipe, wash, mop, and rearrange. Does this happen to you? Something about pending change makes me want to take charge of my surroundings, marshal my energy. I suppose it is my need to be an active participant in what is about to happen. But of course, that is one layer of meaning. As Truth students we like to dig a little deeper to find the metaphysical meaning of things. What does “cleaning the house” really represent?
Probably it means purification, preparation to move from one level of consciousness to another, higher, one. In order to climb higher on the monkey bars, we must let go of lower rungs. We need to shed what no longer serves us in order to acquire something that does. We need to say goodbye to old habits, old ways of dealing with situations, old compromises. We need spiritual spring cleaning: sweep out the cobwebs, toss out the broken lamps, make room for new furniture. I like as a metaphor the hermit crab, many of which I observed on a beach in Costa Rica a few years ago. They scrabble about quite busily, trying out new shells for their little withered bodies, discarding one then another, until they find one that suits them. (They often end up in a tug of war with another crab, always a comical interaction to observe. I wonder whether God laughs at us when we do it?) Eventually off they go, mission accomplished, scrabbling about in the sand happily, dragging their new house with them.
I was a hermit crab these past two weeks. After having an increasingly tough time in my job for the past few years, and a realization that I no longer find joy in it, I decided to cast off the old shell for a new one. I will start a new job this week, one with great potential. So, on a snowy Saturday when most of the world was taking shelter, I ventured to my workplace to pack up my things and clean up so that my successor can have a fresh new shell, too. It was a walk down memory lane, reviewing pictures of former coworkers, greeting cards, and summaries of projects from past years. I tossed out old material and reorganized the remainder. In three hours I packed up what was to come with me, cleaned the office from top to bottom (Murphy’s oil soap!), and metaphorically shook the dust from my feet. I said goodbye to the past and prepared to engage the future. Hello, neutral zone! Greetings, hallway! I am not afraid. I am ready to try something new. This house is clean. This hermit crab is ready to hit the beach.
Here is to your new shell, my friend. Happy spiritual spring cleaning to you.
John Bell
Secretary, Board of Trustees
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