The Sacrimental Mystery of Defrosting One's Freezer

There is so much I need to learn about being an adult. For instance, the term "defrosting one's freezer" completely mystifies me. Why would you ever need to do that? Wouldn't it be a bit counter-productive?

I suppose freezers are like human beings in the sense that they can't take too much of the same thing for too long. Being set at 28 degrees 24 hours a day, 7 days a week can be exhausting, or at least subliming.

Maybe an interval of time in which the freezer is able to melt and purge its crystallized insides (which hasn't seen the light of day in God-knows-how-long) is somewhat like the sacrament of reconciliation for Catholics. After mindlessly accepting the neatly packaged stimuli of the world for weeks at a time, I, personally, come to realize that what I've internalized might be no good. And furthermore, what I've taken in may be taking up unnecessary space, becoming sticky from sublimation or grotesquely disfigured from the crystallization of my frozen world. I realize, every now and then, that I seriously need to defrost the personal freezer of my soul.

My father once showed me a popsicle that he found in the back of our freezer in the garage. It had been in there for four years. By this point, it ceased to be a popsicle and was, rather, a freakish puddle of solid syrup, which had bleed into the fabric of its unopened wrapper and encased the wooden stick in a cryogenic state.

Once it had been cherry flavored. Now, it was just disturbing.

I don't want my soul to become like that popsicle. That popsicle was scary and very sticky.

I want my soul to be fresh--like locally grown veggies lightly glimmering with the morning dew, and kissed by the warmth of the sun.

Perhaps, one day, I will learn to defrost my freezer. Clean out all the stuff I don't need, allow the space to air out in a comfortable temperature to prevent that gross "freezer smell" and to make room for the important things--like ice cream--without it being tainted.

I need to ask my self what's important to me. What do I have room for? And what can I reject that might be holding me back...