Emotional Refuse

by Brandon Jubar

I have a 45 mile commute to work each day, but I don't actually have to drive the whole way if I choose not to. Thanks to a "regional" bus route provided by the local Mass Transportation Authority, I can drive about six miles, park my car for free, and pay $3 to ride the bus to work and back.

Not only is it much more cost-effective than driving, it can also give me back a couple hours of my life each day. I can sleep, read or peck away on my laptop. And sometimes I can just stare out the window and think.

On one such day, as I gazed out the rain-spattered windows of the bus, I was struck by how drab everything looked. The world had become a study in shades of brown. The grass, the trees -- even the occasional fir tree seemed to have lost its color. But the dreariness of the landscape just didn't seem to account for the complete bleakness of it all.

And then I noticed something else.

For many weeks, snow had been piling up all along the expressway. Snowplow after snowplow had cleared the roads, depositing the not-always-quite-white stuff along the edges. But with the snow gone, what remained in its place was weeks' worth of refuse. The sides of the road were covered with garbage that had been hidden from site for a long time; but that garbage had been uncovered, lying out in the open for everyone to see.

Our lives are like that sometimes. We go about our business, plowing through all the stuff that gets thrown our way. But sometimes we forget that there's a lot of garbage buried along our path. Broken promises, forgotten dreams, anger, hurt, apathy -- all the emotional refuse -- that we may not even realize is there.

Easter -- and spring -- may be the best time to clean up the litter of our lives. Through the Sacrament of Reconciliation, penance, and prayer, we can do the spiritual equivalent of Adopt- a-Highway. Jesus died to melt the snow in us, and he will help us clean up the garbage uncovered by the thaw. If we ask him -- and let him -- he will help us give our lives a good, old-fashioned spring cleaning and properly dispose of our emotional refuse.

Peace,
~Brandon