I have a message for someone.  I don’t who it’s for – what I do know is that this person is deeply, deeply loved and that this message is right on time.  I know this message is true because it keeps coming and coming and coming into my mind…it’s gentle and persistent and heart-swelling.

As you know I’ve been working at the Brave River Ranch while Melody and her family have been on vacation this week.  There are hundreds and hundreds and HUNDREDS of flowers at the Ranch, and before Melody left she asked if I would work on deadheading them.

Dead heading is when you pinch off the dead flowers, so that the new flowers can grow.  Because plants (like people) only have so much energy, and unless you pinch the old flowers off…along with as much of the plant is no longer pretty, the plant keeps sending its energy to the dead parts.

When you get rid of the dead parts, the plant doesn’t have all that dead stuff to send its energy to, so it sends all the energy to creating new, beautiful flowers and full foliage.

Here’s the thing though….if you don’t know about flowers you might be scared to deadhead.  You might be afraid that the flowers will never come back, or that the plant will never be beautiful and full and lush again.  Maybe you’d let the dead flowers stay…because you’d rather have wilted flowers than no flowers at all.

But if you get brave and start taking off the dead parts…little by little you’ll start to see hidden things….

Signs of new life under all that deadness….and stunning growth where you hadn’t been able to see it before…and beauty where you didn’t expect it…

Deadheading these little yellow flowers was thrilling.  They look so dead, but if you look really REALLY closely, you can see the tiny new vibrant yellow buds.

If I hadn’t started to go through this plant and take out the old, dead flowers, I would never  have seen the new little promises of life underneath.

So you get it, right?  I mean we could be talking about flowers or cool-whip or life.

You and I only have so much energy.  There are only so many hours in a day…only so many things we can give our energy and our lives to.  Is there some deadheading we need to do in our lives?  I will be more bold than that, since I know this message is for someone out there.  I am telling you, there IS something in your life you need to cut out.  Something unimportant.  Something dead.  Something that is no longer making your life more happy, more beautiful, more meaningful and more full.

Let it go, sweet girl.  Let it become what it needs to become.  Dead flowers go back into the earth to nurture in other ways….

Thank them for the beautiful things they’ve shown you….then let them go…

It takes a lot of work to build a beautiful life.  Whether you’re deadheading your garden or deadheading your soul, you’ll sweat and cry and you’ll ask yourself WHY it takes so long, and why it’s so HARD and why it can’t be EASIER and why SHE doesn’t have to go through this (she does though, just like you).  Do the work.  It’s worth it.

If something is not spectacularly beautiful, then nourish it back to life or let it go.  Don’t live with wilted flowers because you’re afraid of not having flowers.

 

Trust the truth, sweet Brave Girl, there is all kinds of goodness waiting to come into your life the second you let go of the things that are holding you back…

the lies you tell yourself, the limits you put on yourself, past mistakes, past failures, suffocating relationships, what you believe about your circumstances, what you believe about your finances, what you believe about the world….

So…what do we do about all that?  It’s easy to deadhead in the garden.  Not so easy to deadhead in life.  Not easy, but not impossible.

You can do it.  Get quiet.  Listen to that teeny tiny voice inside of you…the one that is telling you to let go.  Trust that there are itsy bitsy buds inside of you that are waiting to burst to life as soon as you give them the energy they need…as soon as you stop sending your energy toward dead, wilted, life-less things.

 

You can do it, sweetheart.

xoxo

PS I didn’t start out with Soul Restoration 1 (our online class) in mind, but just thought of it…Seriously seriously SERIOUSLY, if you want help making boundaries and cutting out the dead parts of your life, and making room for more incredible life, take it.  You’ll love it.  Details are here.