Wednesday, April 6, 2011

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

It’s Spring! All around are blooming perennials. They’ll continue to show their glory until Fall. The older perennials tend to be the fullest and most beautiful. Of them, it’s easy to spot the ones that have been pruned regularly. They grow and then are cut back, and they grow and get cut back again. Year after year.  And they are stronger and lovelier each year.
If we, as humans, were not pruned, we would not develop strength of character that shines through and makes us more lovely.  How are we pruned? Setbacks in life and work or finances, periods of loss and sadness, and times when we feel we’re taken advantage of or even betrayed, to name a few.
Give thanks for the one step forward, two steps back. It’s a time of pruning. And it’s all for good.


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4 comments:

Bryan S. said...

As a landscaper and as someone spiritual and as a complex-minder, I'm thrilled with the metaphor :)

Cheryl Ann Wills said...

that's a lot to someone who is sooooo not a gardener.Thanks!

Bryan S. said...

LOL! Glad I could brighten your day. My father's memorial service was entitled, "A Gardner and a Gambler". His father started the landscaping company but my dad grew it and made it incredibly successful...so much so that, well.....he had plenty left over to gamble...and he loved the ponies..Vegas...heck, he'd wager on ducks crossing Raytown Rd :)

Whole point being...the "gardening" metaphors at his service were in the thousands :)...so gardening metaphors are of extra special impact for me. I miss him more on some days than others...and recently, its been often.

Cheryl Ann Wills said...

miss you, Bry.