Last Saturday, Mark, Brandy and Buck arrived at our house around 9:30 a.m. to do something we had needed for a number of years. They pressure washed our windows, the deck and the garage.

They worked, and they worked, and they continued to work. All day long until about 4, they put their time and effort into cleaning off the dirt and grime buildup that occurs over time.

I worked alongside them, helping to remove and clean storm windows, taping the seams where the window meets the sill to protect the inside from water, and cleaning the inside windows while Mark wiped down the outside ones. It started out as an extremely cold morning, but by the time we finished, we had all worked up a good sweat.

The results are amazing! When I look out my kitchen window now, I do not see cobwebs and dirt but I do see all the beautiful shades of nature. To be able to remove everything that clouds a view to open up a new vision is an incredible thing. I loved being a part of the process, and I especially enjoy now the fruits of our labor.

Maybe that’s why I like ironing. Always have. My mother made me do it as one of my household responsibilities, primarily because she hated doing it. But when I learned to iron, I began to appreciate seeing something so wrinkled become straight and smooth as I moved the iron back and forth across the material.

And maybe that’s why I like painting. My friend Zane first gave me the encouragement I needed to take up painting. I took a white-walled den and painted it a stunning dark green that brought out all the rich colors of the wood in our furniture. I didn’t stop there. I repainted every room in our house, even priming old paneling and painting it as well. It transformed the house from something that had been very plain to a home alive with vibrant colors and textures.

Cleaning windows, ironing and painting – all three promote transformation – a process that results in changed appearance, form, nature or character.

Oftentimes, transformation takes much longer than a day to wash windows, an hour to iron, or a couple of days to paint. Transformation can also be a long, drawn-out process that takes years to deliver any results, particularly when it relates to human beings.

When Mark was preparing to pressure wash our windows, the first thing he had to do was loosen a large number of them that provided stubborn resistance to his attempts to move them up or down. They had been painted on the outside in the past few years and seemed now to be locked in place, unable and unwilling to move. Mark worked steadfastly until every window cooperated with him.

We were then able to remove the storm windows so that he could begin his task. Mark advised me to get some silicone spray and apply it to the metal tracks in each window frame to prevent this problem in the future.

Like those windows, we human beings sometimes provide strong resistance to transformation. We get stuck in one place, and as we feel more and more comfortable there, or as we decide we just don’t want to move anymore, it can be very difficult to loosen the stranglehold of settling for things as they are.

Transformation, like those windows, sometimes needs a gentle push or even some strong-arm tactics, to get started.

Regardless of the methods that get transformation started, the end result is usually just like those wonderfully clean windows we now have. There is a new way to see things, a way that is not clouded by the cobwebs, dirt and grime of life but that is a clearer vision than previously held. My windows had no choice in the matter of transformation. Humans do. Choose wisely.

Harris Murray is director of library services at Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College. She can be reached by e-mail at writeharris55@yahoo.com.

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