Pruning multiplies

 

After two months of pruning of this Croton plant, I noticed that each branch has now two or three shoots springing from the stem which was pruned. The plant was bare without leaves for about a month. It was a loss to the plant for a while, but the plant was given a chance to multiply itself. The prospects of this growth with new shoots came out of the pruning that was done. 

I have had time to look back at times in the recent three years when there was a sense of suffocation at work place with some inhibiting factors. I did find those times disturbing, and annoying sometimes. 

Now in hindsight, I feel that it was not a time of suffocation,  but confinement to stay focussed and continue being purposeful. The season of being restricted brought forth a new perspective about the work and calling. It was a one season after a long spell, when there were several opportunities to look at work through the optic of calling. Yes, some developmental plans got interrupted, but it was a season when multiple opportunities came up as a way forward. I was so consumed and preoccupied that the prospects of new shoots waiting to spring forth got subsumed in the routine and a fixed perspective. 

It was when I decided to retire in June, I began to see the new shoots waiting to be born. During the last one month since retirement, I felt as if a veil was removed from my sight. The veil of longing to foresee a future, that had a personal choice for the future of the work that I was involved in inhibited new possibilities!

 The pruning of that longing was necessary for  more opportunities to evolve!

I felt that I could retire without feeling compelled to sustain a dream! Letting go a dream is a form of self pruning!

As I sit and key in these words from the transit cornet at home,  I sense new shoots emerging in my consciousness. I got in touch with a few friends, who surprised me with a question" You must have been busy" for a long time!

I sense other shoots emerging within!

Let me suggest that it is wise to subject oneself to self pruning to allow changes to occur in our lives. Life is larger in content, waiting for an opportunity to express! 

Move away from a preoccupied living!

That is when new shoots are sure to emerge!

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)