Quarantine 2020: Spring Pruning for a Bumper Harvest

WEEK ONE: ASSESSING  WHERE TO PRUNE

'Everything has seasons, and we have to be able to recognise when something's time has passed and be able to move into the next season. Everything that is alive requires pruning as well, which is a great metaphor for endings.'

-- Henry Cloud

List  5 things  missing from your life right now- your interests

List  5 things that are not missing - your  stresses

List 5 things you wish you were missing- your goals

Study the Life Chart below and decide which aspect of your life  contains the most dead wood...........

Decide where the pruning is needed:

       -  Physical Environment?

       -  Health & Fitness?

        - Fun, Recreation & Entertainment?

        - Career/ Business?

        -Finances and Wealth?

         -Love Life?

         - Friends and Family?

          -Personal/ Spiritual  Development?

WEEK TWO: PRUNING FOR NEW GROWTH

'Natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience.'Francis Bacon

1. Physical Environment 

It is probably easiest to start with our physical environment when we begin the actual process of pruning in our lives.  Only by cleansing or living environment of what is no longer needed, do we actually see what we do need.

- Work/Study

                  

How often do we lose time searching for a work document we need in a drawer or on a computer? Usually the first thing we do when trying to  organise our paperwork is to throw away what we don't need. Burn it or bin it. Then with the small pile remaining organise it!

 -Home

                                           

               There is nothing like spending time in a place to decide  if we like it eh!    

               With the extra time gained we can purge our living space from the clutter of unread magazines and papers, surplus ornaments and unused gadgetry. Then we can survey our life from an empty coffee table!                   

 -Personal

Likewise with the wardrobe and other personal items! It's out with the old but without having the easy facility of coming in with the new! Time saved in shopping can be devoted to organisation!

 2. Health and Fitness

So what can you purge here? Expensive gymn membership? Gruelling morning exercise routines? Can these better be replaced by something cheaper and more social?

       

3. Fun, Recreation & Entertainment

Maybe there is little to prune in this aspect of your life?

But much time for the arranging and planning of same.

4. Career/ Business

There has been huge changes for all of us. For many it has been learning how we can do or jobs from home; for some sadly the necessity of searching for new employment. For all it has new the challenge of trying to connect with our clients in new ways; purging outmoded means of communication and marketing.

5. Finances and Wealth

Following on from what has been already stated it has been a case of necessity is the mother of invention. And creativity is fostered by abundance of time... and YouTube how-to videos!

  6. Love Life

'Love in the time of Cholera ' indeed! Haven't read it myself but I bet it was quite a challenge!   So what can you purge that can improve your lovelife? Selfish behaviour could be a starting point for all of us!

 7. Friends and Family

No excuses for not phoning your mother now eh! Seriously by improved frequency in communication comes greater empathy and understanding. Time for this needs to be made by pruning in other areas of your life so this can be maintained long term.

 8. Personal/ Spiritual  Development

With a serene domestic environment, more creativity, improved relationships and new focus and less selfishness, we are moving closer along the path to sainthood anyway! It is not going to take much effort to try to add a little more spirituality to our daily life.

WEEK THREE: GRAFTING AND PROPAGATING

Conversion is not the smooth, easy-going process some men seem to think... It is wounding work, this breaking of the hearts, but without wounding there is no saving... Where there is grafting there will always be a cutting, the graft must be let in with a wound; to stick it onto the outside or to tie it on with a string would be of no use. Heart must be set to heart and back to back or there will be no sap from root to branch. And this, I say, must be done by a wound, by a cut.

John Bunyan

Grafting our physical space by adding newplants and flowers  

Grafting our Health and Fitness by adding invigorating new                                                 regimes.         

 Grafting our recreation, fun and entertainment by watching new                                                                    films, plays and operas.                                

Grafting career and business development by cultivating business ideas and  new partners and clients.

Grafting our finances and wealth by greater creativity and connections.                                    

Grafting our love life by more communication and better behaviour

Grafting our relationship with friends and family by more frequent communication and assistance.                                                                    

Grafting our personal and spiritual development by more personal reflection, reading and discussion.                             

WEEK FOUR: FERTILIZING NEW GROWTH

“The lotus is the most beautiful flower, whose petals open one by one. But it will only grow in the mud. In order to grow and gain wisdom, first you must have the mud --- the obstacles of life and its suffering. ... The mud speaks of the common ground that humans share, no matter what our stations in life. ... Whether we have it all or we have nothing, we are all faced with the same obstacles: sadness, loss, illness, dying and death. If we are to strive as human beings to gain more wisdom, more kindness and more compassion, we must have the intention to grow as a lotus and open each petal one by one. ”
                                                           ― Goldie Hawn

Now you are ready to go back to the lists you made in week one. Wow our lockdown is nearly at an end! You've assessed your tree of life. You've considered what makes it  blossom and what makes it wither. You've pruned it of its dead wood. You've grafted some fresh green wood from which you hope to see some new green shoots this year. Shoots which  will become our new strong branches that will bear fruit. 

Renovated physical space→ Greater enjoyment of sharing it 

Improved Health and Fitness→ Greater energy and more zest                    for life

 New sources of recreation, fun and entertainment→ Greater 

                                                                                          sense                                                                                               of well-being

Refocused career and business goals →Greater sense of personal                                          fulfillment

New sources of finances and wealth→ Greater personal security                                            and freedom

Revitalised love life→ Greater sense of personal contentment

Improved communication with friends and family→ Greater                                                                        connection with our roots

Great personal and spiritual development→Greater blossoming                                                                       in all areas of our life.