Gardening

This morning I pruned in our flowerbed.
Culling out the dead flowers. Pulling up weeds.

Praying as I went:
God, prune the dead parts out of me.
Cut out the flowers that are past their prime.
The parts of me that I was so proud of!
Take them out, so I don’t dwell on the past.
I want to be looking ahead, rather than looking behind to where I’ve been….

I deadhead flowers so that they don’t go to seed.
That way the plants can put more energy into new flowers.
Not sure where this goes in the metaphor.
Because – in life I’d rather have fruit than flowers.

The flowers die, they wither, they bulge out and get ugly.
Then they look totally dead, then the seeds drop to the ground.
Then new life can begin.

God, if there are parts of me that can produce new life –
I pray that you will bring that about.
Even if it gets ugly in the process. Even as parts of me need to die.