*This post was written based off of a voice memo I recorded after taking a walk with my dog one morning. You can listen to the voice memo as I was thinking through it below, or read the edited version below that.

Today I was taking my dog for a walk around my apartment complex when I noticed that the beautiful and colorful rose and hydrangea bushes that usually line the pathway where I walk him were completely cut.

Now when I say they’re cut, I don’t mean like beautifully pruned into cute little shapes that you would love to see in your own personal garden.

No, I mean they are cut. HACKED. They’re basically completely barren at this point.

When I first looked at them I was almost in a state of shock because I’m used to these bushes bearing such full, gorgeous flowers and bringing so much beauty and life to this pathway that we walk everyday.

But then when I took a moment to really think about it, I realized this:

In order for them to bloom when the time is appropriate for them to bloom, right now they have to be cut. These bushes MUST be in the current state they’re currently in right now in order for them to reach their full blooming potential later when Spring comes.

They have to be pruned in the winter time in order to prepare them for the next state that they will enter into in the springtime.

This situation made me to start to think of my own life currently, and I’m sure there are others who may be able to relate in their own lives. I started to think of how there are times in our lives when it’s a time of pruning, a time to be cut, a time to be hacked - it’s a time for things to be removed from our lives.

When this time shows up in our lives it almost feels like we’re in the same barren state that those rose bushes are in.

It may feel like nothing is coming to fruition in our lives. It seems like nothing is working out and everything is, to be honest, ugly.

We begin to feel like we have nothing to show for it in our lives in that moment.

But what we often fail to realize is that these times are necessary. These times have to occur so that when the time comes for us to bloom, we’re ready.

When the time comes around for beautiful things to come to fruition in our lives, and that time will come, we have already been prepared. We’re already in the state that we need to be in in order for those things to unfold in our lives.

In order for good things to bloom in our lives, we have to go through the pruning stages to make room for our blessing buds to grow in.

I know it’s difficult in those times to keep a positive outlook. Trust me, I can relate to how much work it takes to stay in a grateful space when everything around you looks absolutely barren.

But I do believe we have to realize that whatever we’re going through right now is preparing us for what’s next.

So instead of resisting the pruning stage because we don’t want to go through the ugliness, we have to start embracing it in preparation of what’s coming next for us.