Soapbox: Personal Renovations

So the tree is down and the holiday things are off the wall... okay, I admit it, they aren't really put away yet. One step at a time.  My goal is to have my house back by New Year's Day.  I love the holiday decorations, but by now I am more than ready to have the simpler, less cluttered living room etc. back.  The rooms always seem so much bigger to me somehow.

There is something about putting away all that stuff that makes me itch to refresh, straighten, sort, throw away, etc. the spaces in my houses.  [More accurately the places that have no space left!] Much like New Year's resolutions, I have as much urge to clean and reinvent my house in January as the more tradition spring cleaning season. As I was working it occurred to me that living spaces aren't the only things that need occasional renovation and refreshing. People do too. Goodness knows I do. Some of my renovations have been forced reincarnations and reinventions. But sometimes it has been by choice as well.  Children need to renovate and reinvent too. Some children reinvent themselves more often than adults. Others need help, guidance, and support to change, redefine, and renew.  Just as they need to be taught how to pick up or to clean well, they need to be show how to grow, adapt, and reinvent. Helping them learn how to grow and change is one more part of our job as parents.

So today/s soapbox is less a rant than a thought.  Everybody needs renovation after a while. We need to allow ourselves and our children the time, space, skills, and support to choose to change.  Now it we could just find the energy!!

Image credit: flickr.com