Spring Clean

The endless desire to keep things clean and clear.

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Tonight, I stepped out for my last dog walk of the day and the smell of Spring smashed me full in the face like a fresh bouquet of floral greatest hits.

It made me want to fling all my windows open, change my bedding, dust, scrub and hoover, put a wash on and clear out everything, the digital as much as the material, inviting in crisp, fresh new energy. A feeling of space, of starting again.

There are as many claims to the source of the Spring Clean as there are recipes for the best ever homemade all-purpose cleaner. According to some passages in the Torah it is traceable back to the preparation for Passover, others say it dates back to the birth of the industrial revolution where each room would be thoroughly cleaned after the Winter to clear it of the build up of dust and soot from coal warming fires, some say it descends from the Persian calendar whose New Year falls on the first day of Spring. The fact that there are so many cultures laying claim to this festival of cleanliness, points me towards the idea that there is something far more seismic going on. Attuned to nature’s shedding of the old, ready to blossom forth with budding newness, could it just be that we have simply always been compelled to have a giant sort out, come Springtime?