Cleaning out my gutters

Cleaning out my gutters

My husband and I spent a few hours cleaning out our gutters in anticipation of a huge storm predicted. We live on a property with 13 grand oak trees … we’ve learned to love to hate them. At any time of the year they make their presence known in irritating ways. In the fall and winter they drop thousands of acorns… hence our land being a squirrel sanctuary. I am not exaggerating when I say ‘thousands’ of acorns. In the spring they grow and drop a yellow pollenous fiber. It drifts through the air to grace everything in it’s path. In the summer the tree drops dark-colored sap … the tree guy says that’s the mark of a healthy tree. For me, I’m constantly worried about checking the patio chairs so my girlfriends in white pants don’t sit down on a surprise.

When starting to scoop out the sludge in the gutters, it was composed of newly fallen oak leaves, old wet and funky smelling leaves, twigs, mud and other things that smelled and probably went ‘boo’ in the night when they were alive. I made sure I wore gloves that went up to my elbows.

My husband made sure I had the safer ladder to climb. At my age I had to be very careful every time I went up and down … which was a lot of times with a 4,000 SF home. The roof was made of individual Spanish tiles so walking or placing weight on them was not allowed. I had to be very cognizant of where my body was in space at all times.

Within a few minutes of starting to purge the gutter, I almost went into a meditative state. The rhythm in which I used my body to move … up and down, side to side, forward and backward. I realized that it used a lot of core movement and became thankful that my daily exercise quota would be filled doing this work. I also started thinking about the leaves … not so much the other disgusting gunk in my hands. I wondered how many years I was purging from my home. And with the purge, how much was I leaving free and open for the new to materialize and be. And how much the new rain would easily cascade through the gutters to clean them. And I became thankful for the anticipated rain … and the new life and resurrection it would bring to my little patch of nature.

I wondered about who was watching me do this work … what the squirrels thought while I was scooping unfound acorns out of their reach. What the birds thought as I was stealing just a little of their nest material. What my neighbors were thinking as they saw me perched high in the sky looking down into their private lives.

So what started as a chore that needed to be done, actually turned into an exercise of thankfulness and gratitude. Since our energetic make-up is the same as the oaks, I thought about the purging of my own ‘gutters’ … the internal sludge that has taken years to accumulate. How it also needs to be purged so that there is open space and light for the new to enter and take root. And how it should be an on-going conscious process … one that is necessary so that the new growth can be abundant and beautiful. I thought about others in my life and how we share this earth … how we yearn to harmonize and create loving relationships that are balanced and giving so that we all thrive.

I was tired at the end of my ‘chore’, but I was incredibly satisfied and happy … go and figure. My husband and I had shared some time lost in our own thoughts … (I wonder now what he was thinking this whole time). We created light and space for new growth … we beautified our environment … we created balance between us and mother earth. We then washed ourselves clean and enjoyed some good food and drink. I think I’m going to clean my gutters more often.