An olive tree is well pruned only if a swallow can fly in its branches.

~ Old Tuscan Proverb

In nature, space is important.
When it comes to delivering amazing fruit it's everything.

Real results lie not only in the decision of what is left to grow but, perhaps more importantly, in what is removed.

Looking through the eyes of Mother Nature, we see how well this culling and pruning thing works out.
Rich, ruby grapes to make the finest of wines and green gold olives to make the most delicious of olive oils.  All because someone cared enough and had the courage to cut away the extra, unneeded growth.

When it comes to our own lives though, we've come to believe we can hang onto it all and arrive with bountiful results.
As life moves along, we keep adding, rarely subtracting.
A hoarder of sorts.
We bring more and more on board in our lives.
We find we have less and less to support the growth of the things most meaningful to us.

Just reading this, you probably know where I'm headed 😉
Pruning is one of those things we'd like to believe we can get by without doing.
We fear it may be messy and confusing.   Potentially involving the need for action once we see where the 'suckers' are 😉

What if we just picked one 'limb' and had a look, asked a question?
Starting with the obvious one first.
Is this 'limb' leading me to or away from my heart's desire?
A definite 'yes', it's leading me away?
Eliminate.
Look again.
Noted author Martha Beck has a shackles on, shackles off way of asking that I've used often.
Does this feel like a shackles on or shackles off item?
Shackles on?
Eliminate.
Asking the simplest of questions can deliver the easiest of answers.
None of us, not you, not me, are as confused on what we want (or how to get it) as we might sometimes believe we are.

We must prune out the undergrowth and overgrowth, the suckers and the deadwood.

What we receive in return is
a beautiful space
an unencumbered place

for our dreams to take wing.

And then
we fly.

P.S.  I invite you now to simply let your mind play with that idea.  What would it feel like to have the space you need to do the work you are born to do?  Pruning won't feel so hard looking at it from that sense of freedom.

 "Tuscan Gold"
From my Timeless Tuscany course collection