A Year of Pruning

On January 4, 2021 I went into a 3 week solitary at 8000 feet on the ancestral lands of the Ute and Navajo people in Southern Colorado. My life was upended by a move I didn’t want and family dynamics that were chaotic. I trusted the piercing silence and time out of time would restore me.

While there, I was called to prune the deadwood of relationships that no longer serve. I owed nothing more to certain people and I’d already given too much of myself to keep them going. To be a good gardener means to be a good pruner in order to make room for whatever new life might come through.

The symbolic twigs and branches were tossed into the woodstove fire. I sat and watched them for a few moments and then closed the door of the stove. There was nothing sentimental about it, it was simply time to name situations for what they were and release them.

Pruning to me means the situations are energetically trimmed to the ground and I await better days when the warm sun and sweet rains return and I see what wants to happen. Being patient with that in between time is the challenge and the opportunity. It’s a place where our wisdom deepens and it’s not always pleasant but it was never meant to be. We often cannot see how we’ve grown until after we’ve come through such periods.

Collectively we’ve had to prune back relationships and expectations since late 2019. I’ve left some peoples’ lives and some have left mine. It’s been complex but the relief of living authentically far outweighs the losses.

We are being asked to live lean, to let our collective fields lay fallow and continue to let the great uncertainties work us, whether we like it or not. In case you haven’t noticed the dynamics of these times don’t care much about our opinions!

These times have “gifted” us in ways most of us would never ask. But if we dare put our ear to the ground, we’d hear a call to simplicity, deep listening and the courageous act of trusting what we can’t yet know.

May great heart, perseverance, and discernment be yours as we come to the end of a long year.