Growth

In my blog of January 29th (Human Beings and Flowers), I wrote that, for me, it is painful to prune my flowers because it is almost as if I am being pruned as well.  I noted, as an analogy, that is true.  It can be said that when we go through periods of renewal and dormancy, our trials and tribulations prune us for further growth.  Our trials and tribulations are like good soil, water, and fertilizer is to plants.  People grow and evolve, evolution being the process by which something gradually changes to different, and more mature, stages in our lives. Like the bud on a rose bush opening, in our personal growth, mentally and emotionally we are expanding. Unlike the natural evolution of flowers, with us it usually takes hard work and often surrender to the powers that be, but with time we do grow.  I have been watching the rose bush that I pruned.  I didn't think it would make it this time and bloom again because it looked so forlorn, just  bare branches looking  like dead ends. But low and behold, today, I noticed small red leaves growing out from those bare branches, among the thorns, despite the thorns.  This is what happens in our lives.  Just when we feel like we will be in the same sad place forever and never "see the light," there is a spurt of growth,  or even an avalanche.  An unknown author said, "May my teaching drop like rain, my speech condense like dew; like gentle rain on the grass, like showers on new growth."  We need to trust the cycles of dormancy will renew us and lead us to new and better circumstances.  We need to be patient, and it wouldn't hurt to remember we are works in progress.