Have you ever paid attention to the trees this time of year? The leaves are just starting to come in and most of what we are greeted with even in a forest full of trees are empty branches. Lately as I've taken walks I've been noticing that the trees aren't entirely empty. Somehow God keeps bringing the empty nests to my attention. The remnants of one little family of birds old life. This is a place that played a role in their history, but this year they will move on and build a new nest in a different location. It's just the way things are designed to work.
Sometimes I wish I could be a little more like the birds that once inhabited these nests. To be able to accept moving on as part of my journey, but somehow that's hard for me. There are parts of it I excel at, but the moments that feel like I failed. I have a little harder time moving on from the perceived failures. I want a redo. I want to redeem the experience. In those moments moving on is excruciating.
Lately it seems that God has been addressing clutter in my life. The hard part.... He seems to be pointing out that holding on to relationships after they've served His purpose creates clutter. That's hard for me to wrap my head around. Intellectually, I can acknowledge that as we move into different roles in life that relationships change, but somehow as an introvert I hate losing those places I've invested my energy and emotions.
Today as I wandered through a local nature park I kept noticing those empty nests. As I noticed the space they took up in the branches just waiting to unfurl their budding leaves I found myself wondering what are the empty nests in my life that God is wanting to move so that I can grow more freely unfettered by those things that pull my attention and energy away from what He wants to use me for. What is it that is keeping me from abandoning the old life of last summer to fully live in this spring? I'm sure it's an ongoing evaluation, but I'm finding it a necessary one.
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