Spring Cleaning My Way to Neverland by Anne Nayer, msw, Coach Paradise

For a while now I’ve been noticing that when I open my email each morning, I’ve been deleting more unread emails than I read, so I figured it was time to unsubscribe from the plethora of newsletters ( inspirational and otherwise) and alerts and promotions for all kinds of things that come tumbling into my in-box, making me look like the CEO of a thriving corporation or Miss Congeniality herself.

I have to say that I’ve been enjoying clicking on unsubscribe even as I worry that I’ll get so few emails that I’ll start feeling lonely.

Doing the same on face book is called unfriending, even though the folks I’ve been unfriending aren’t really my friends but some of the nearly 5000 people with whom I am connected through common interests, business links – friends of friends of friends of friends – and I’ve been getting quite a bit of satisfaction out of this too – especially when someone posts something I that’s not up my alley or rubs me the wrong way – I don’t hesitate to click on unfriend.

There are metamorphosis going on in my off line life too –friendships shifting, people growing closer and farther apart with the seasons – best friends and daily check-in buddies seen only now and then, people who used to be in the background moving into the foreground, not to mention new characters entirely entering the story line. Not better or worse – just different and the result both on-line and off line is that there’s more space, more breathing room, more time.

And then I remembered that it’s Spring and without even knowing it what I’ve been up to is my version of spring cleaning – shaking out the carpets, collecting dust bunnies, cleaning out the closets of last seasons clothing and cleaning out the closets of my mind and heart. In my long ago northern incarnation I’d be packing up the down coats and sweaters and boots and getting down the sun dresses, sandels, sleeveless tops and bathing suits that in their pastel colors spell lightness and freedom. Now I’m divesting myself of what I no longer wear, what no longer suits me and what is taking up space that might welcome fresh breezes, new coats of paint and room for whatever is about to reborn, resurrected, created.

What’s calling my name is a big white canvas on which Joan Miro (one of my favorite painters) used to share what mattered most to him – in childlike symbols, drawing a star, a flower, a woman, the sun, the sky – and that was it.

In the random and inspired way we free associate and our thoughts take us on a journeys, I thought of Peter Pan and that his appearance at the Darling household in London was to find someone to help him with spring cleaning in Neverland – leading to the adventure of a lifetime for Wendy, Michael and John Darling.

Though he promised to return every year afterwards he only showed up once or twice before letting a huge gap of time elapse – enough time for Wendy to grow up, get married and have a daughter of her own. But return he did, as if no time had passed, looking for help with his spring cleaning. The bittersweet truth was the Wendy was too heavy, too big, she had betrayed his commitment to never grow up and he had to take Jane, her daughter instead. Off they flew to Neverland for the annual Spring Cleaning ritual.

I think that’s what I’m really doing – remembering that there a place where dreams are born and where time is never planned. Since it’s not on any chart and I must find it in my heart, one of the best ways to unearth the treasure that lives there is toss out, delete, unfriend, allow the shifting sands of friendship to form new beaches, polish the sliding glass doors, shine the mirrors, pull out the fridges and the stoves, clean the cupboards, toss outdated, expired products and sit back on the deck watching whales pass by, delighting in the new found space and joy that is always and only found in my own spacious version of Neverland.

In this season of birth and resurrection, of new possibilities, of fertility and the hatching of eggs, the birth of bunnies and the approach of the longest and lightest days of the year – may your Spring Cleaning be thorough, inspired and vigorous and may it lead you to the treasure of your own Neverland.