Spring is in the air.  And so is the dust!  The mighty mechanical dusters are out on the highways and byways dusting the salt and sand deposited there over the winter months.  People are throwing open their windows and doors to shake heavy blankets and floor mats ready to be stored till winter returns once more.

Being "shack wacky" is usually my state of mind once winter begins its retreat. I just can't wait to get outside and blow out the cobwebs and breathe deeply the fresh new smells of spring: rain, wet grass, worms.  It is so revitalizing to open up the house so the smells can live inside as well as out.

If you had been around my house during the winter of '87, you would have watched me tear apart my living and dining room.  I tore old paneling off the walls, old carpeting off the floors and even tore off some "grassy" looking wallpaper that had been inherited with the purchase of the house.  Most of this awful clutter lay heaped alongside the house under the carport waiting for the proverbial annual Spring cleanup.

When it did arrive I desperately wanted to be outside rather than in so I began the dreaded Spring Cleaning in the carport.  It was a magnificent day.  It was so bright, blue and almost balmy.  Ever notice how the same low fall temperatures that make us run for our jackets, cause us to shed those layers in the spring?  I did. Then I rolled up my sleeves and even began to whistle a tune as I worked.  If you'd been there, I would have told you how much I liked working outside.  How easy it was for me to muster the discipline to do this annual cleaning.  How grateful I was to have the opportunity to be in the outdoors and enjoying all that the day had to offer.  My heart was singing as my "shack wacky" state of mind was fading.

Then I stepped on a nail.  Oh yes.  A rather large one to boot….pun intended.  Being a rather nimble sort, I was able to jump quickly thus preventing what could have been an even worse injury.  My "I'd rather be outside doing this than inside dusting" was challenged.  After all, who ever heard of having to head to the hospital for treatment while dusting?  I laughed.  Was someone trying to tell me something? 

The trip to the hospital was a short one.  There are perks to living in small townOntario.  A few questions about the last time I had a tetanus shot, a quick cleaning (dare I say Spring Cleaning?) of my foot and off home I went.  Sounds painless, but actually it wasn't.  I no longer wanted to clean outside or in.  So instead I grabbed a book I'd been dying to read and sat out on the porch in the bright sunshine.  And a new kind of cleaning began.

The book I had grabbed was Norman Vincent Peele's The Power of Positive Thinking.  Almost immediately I realized that my mind was being challenged.  I was asked all sorts of questions that prompted me to haul out some of my long-time beliefs, dust them off and take a good look at them.  Why I believed certain things about myself and life in general was not easy to answer.  Just as I had inherited that "grassy" looking wallpaper, so had I inherited some "foggy" thinking.

It never occurred to me that my brain needed a good cleaning.  Other body parts, for sure, but the brain?  Clearing out the cobwebs was exactly what I needed to do.  Peele's wisdom shed light on how my thinking was hindering my progress and shone this light on a new path.  With a positive outlook, instead of a negative one, I believed I could move forward.

With a renewed spirit, I quit my job and went to university to become a teacher.  My boss thought that I was making a huge mistake.  My friends thought I'd totally lost it. "You can't do that at your age! You have 4 kids to raise! Are you crazy? " were frequent comments.    My bank thought I was committing financial suicide and wasn't sure I was the sort of customer they wanted.  My children thought it was a hoot as long as I wasn't going to end up in one of their classes. 

What a ride!  From high school dropout to high school teacher!  Who would have thought?  With the benefit of 20/20 hindsight how those decisions enriched my life and those close to me. 

Note to Self…   Look for opportunities to learn life lessons.  Sometimes they come in the most unlikely manner.  It could even be as simple as a nail that became a blower to clear the cobwebs.