Tag: worth

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As we prepared for the Mother’s Day celebration at Bartlett Arboretum we were tidying up, pulling tulips for mums, planting more budding flowers & [my newly found interest] pruning. [the heck?]

“Trim the dead right up to the live tree so it promotes growth. The likelihood of it growing back healthy is increased.” • {tree}

Amidst my therapeutic tree pruning, it unfolded within me that this tree and its lifeless, energy drain limbs is no different from our lives and the baggage we carry or hold on to. Just as the limbs of a tree are cropped, we too can trim the dead, the negativity, the nonsense & the unfulfilling branches in our life; the branches that leave us parched, hurting, seeking fulfillment or approval, running in circles & exhausting beautiful days.

Just as the tree exerts energy in trying to contain the damage & the sickly branches continue to prevent new growth, we too find ourselves stuck & empty due to people, things, circumstances & choices.

Insert: pruning.

I have experienced the difficulty in “trimming the fat” within my own life; I have also experienced the joy that comes from it that I never knew existed.

The initial difficulties in saying no, walking away from a hurtful person, loving someone from a distance rather than closely & full of expectation, making discerning decisions based on acknowledging my worth all lead to growth within me & have since offered me joy, restful nights & alive days.

The tree takes years to grow, flower, stretch, canopy, shake the dead, flourish, spread, rise up — with no end to speak of; what makes us think we are not so peculiar?

I am thankful for my foundation, my heart, my trunk.

I am thankful for my branches that stretch out in many directions seeking light, passion, service & my Maker.

I am also thankful for the deadwood that has been shaken off — among the nonessential has been learning experiences teaching me truth, authenticity, what truly matters in our lives & once shimmied down to my core, it is where I truly uncover myself.

Thank you {Mother Nature} | for being my teacher.

Thank you {Tree} | for helping me to become an enlightened wildflower among the wilderness 🌸

jump • leap • fly

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Being the oldest sibling provides an interesting route. One minute you are awestruck in the presence of this little human & showering them with squinches, the next you are pulling each other’s hair out in the aisle of a grocery store as a tantrum ensues.

[repeat. x’s 3]

Most people have siblings so the exploitation of our shenanigans isn’t necessary, however, this most recent chapter, quite possibly, reveals the most beautiful gift a sibling has to offer: growth.

Most recently I have been encouraged by the youngest in our crew, my brother.

Short & sweet: my brother is a collegiate baseball player that found himself in an environment, among individuals that, over time, proved to be hindering & adverse to his growth on & off the field.

After stewing over the unrest for a year [+], he made the faith-guided decision to transfer colleges.

It has me reflecting — how often do we stick around for people, companies, relationships & geographical whereabouts being unhappy & disheartened, because we feel this tug of loyalty; this loyalty to someone or something that continues to chip away at us rather than galvanize the best in us.

Rather than scratch the surface of the unknown, we cling to the familiar & safe in hopes that if we stick it out people, circumstances & outcomes will change.

I wish at a younger age I would have released the inner lioness in me & rejected the fear that was commonly chosen over spontaneous happening, approaching opportunity & even a moment to share/use my gifts with others; all hindered & set aside in the presence of doubt.

But my brother did what I &, likely, most of us wish we would have had the strength to do as a young adult: walk a w a y from what is not good & blindly walk t o w a r d the unsung.

I’m thankful for my brothers little reminder in chasing passions, rejecting fear in the midst of life-defining decision making, acknowledging our worth & what it looks like to jump, leap — fly.

“Shine like the whole universe is yours.” – Rumi

#Adventure
#Journey
#InPursuit
#Fly

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