Nature's lessons from the broken branch - Part 5

Tending the garden of the heart - Day 79

Learning humility

The broken apple tree branch, which stood straight and upright, broke from the weight of the abundance of the young apples on it. This branch, it appeared, never bowed when it was young like the other branches and therefore never hardened that way. We wonder if it ever bore any fruit before and if it did may not have been enough to cause it to bend. Now that it had passed the flexibility stage and bore fruit in abundance, it was unable to bend and as a result broke.

If humility is not learned at an early stage of growth, when success comes, an individual may not be able to handle it and therefore it becomes destructive to him/her. Expand yourself with the essential quality of humility that you may be ready to embrace success when it manifests itself.

12 Steps to Learning Humility

1) Be teachable

When you are teachable, you position yourself to move quickly to the next level and others are willing to help you get there.

2) Take constructive criticisms and don't be resistant or defensive

Constructive criticisms show you where your weak areas are so you can work on strengthening them.

3) Willingness to learn new ways of doing things

When you are open to learn new ways of doing things, possibilities are endless. Your wealth of knowledge increases, and used with wisdom, simplifies your life.

4) See criticisms as an opportunity to improve yourself even if it may not be done with good intentions. There may be a lesson in there for you to learn. Look for the hidden treasures.

5) Accept support and advice from others that are more experienced

This step may save you years of mistakes, time and in some cases a lot of money.

6) Go ahead and ask for help when you need it

Sometimes our own pride keeps us from doing what we know we should do and that is ask for help when we're stomped. If you're concerned about who you should go to for help, ask the Spirit of Wisdom what you need help with and get ready, either the material you need will show up in a book, an audio, online, and someone may tell you the information without you even asking them or it may come up in a conversation providing the right opportunity for you to ask away.

7) Be willing to work with others

Be team spirit minded. When working with others, even if it is your project or you are the leader, see yourself as part of a team. Be willing to listen to the ideas and input of others. You'll find that your team members are more willing to go the extra mile.

8) Be willing to move with changing of the winds

Learning to recognize when the winds of change has come, whether in your personal life or business, puts you in a position to go with the flow and ride the winds with the Spirit. This change may put you in a better place than where you are and avert unforeseen misfortunes.

9) Be respectful to others

Respecting others regardless of their status in life will open many doors for you in unlikely places. You never know which person you meet will be the one that holds the key to your success or your inner desire.

10) Be kind

Kindness always go a long way. Sow seeds of kindness to everyone you meet. These seeds will germinate and grow. You'll want to be at the receiving end of the kindness harvest.

11) Be patient when working with others

Tolerance is a part of the fruit of the Spirit. We all like it when others are tolerant with us. Return the favour and patience will be developed within you.

12) Don't be arrogant. Treat everyone as important as you are

If you think you are important, which you are, treat everyone else as important. We are all a part of each other. Every part of a tree is important for proper growth. No part is less favourable - all is needed, the leaves, the branches, the roots, the bark, therefore treat everyone as such.

As you mature in your personal development with these qualities, when success comes and your fruit comes in, you'll be flexible enough to handle it gracefully.

Nature's lessons from the broken branch - Part 4

Tending the garden of the heart - Day 78

We noticed that some of the other branches which also had young apples were supported by other stronger branches so there was a better distribution of the weight. These stronger branches were more mature and had gone through their fruit bearing and hardening stages perhaps several times.

No man is an island and we need each other at different stages of our growth process to fulfill our destiny. When we use the strength and support of others who have gone through the maturing process we are better able to handle the fruiting stage of our success. Going it alone, like our broken branch, could prove detrimental to all that you've worked so hard to produce.

The broken branch was obviously a newer side growth off the main tree. It was very straight, unlike some of the other branches, which were bent over and hardened that way. On observing these branches, they were bent when they were younger and more flexible and therefore hardened with that position of flexibility.

The broken branch, which was straight and upright, did not go through this bending stage and did not experience the flexibility which proves useful once it hardened. At this stage of the growth, trying to bend a hardened branch is next to impossible so instead of bowing with the weight of the fruit, it broke.

A vital lesson to learn here; if in the beginning stages of our growth process we do not learn the art of bowing in humility, when success arrives we will break under its weight because we have not learned to be gracious and graceful in our hearts. We have not expanded in our thinking and in our capacity to embrace all that success has to offer.

Success is great and should be a goal to attain, but success without inner personal growth can be destructive.

Nature's lessons from the broken branch - Part 3

Tending the garden of the heart - Day 77

Keep your fruit alive by staying connected to the Main Tree.

The young apples on the branch began to shrivel because of the disconnection of the branch. When disconnection occurs, everything goes.

If a person has lived a life connected to Spirit and suddenly in the prime of their life, when everything is going well, they're at the height of their career when tragedy strikes, they have two choices. Either they continue to remain connected to the Spirit or turn away in anger and disconnect themselves. The result of disconnection is tragic, not only for the individual but for those who look to them for support or look up to them as a leader.

Disconnecting from our Source is never an option under any circumstances regardless of what the conditions or how tragic an event may have been. It is through our pain that we need to stay even closer to the Source and allow the healing 'nutrients' of love to flow through every fibre of our being.

It is in the isolated and lonely place that your connection to Source is of vital importance than at any other time. It is in these delicate moments that you draw from Spirit's strength to be uplifted up against the sting of pain that you are not destroyed by the offense or the adversity.

Turning away from your Source is never an option. For in so choosing you turn to where there is no life and darkness then overshadows your being. Instead of suppleness and tenderness of soul, one becomes cold and callous under the elements of loss.

Though you may have been injured, though you may have been broken, turn to your Source and draw upon the Living Healing Water of your soul and be restored to health. For as long as you remain in Spirit you will rise up again and your fruit will remain.

Nature's lessons from the broken branch - Part 2

Tending the garden of the heart - Day 76

The laden apple tree branch succumbed to the heat of the sun because it was broken off from the nutrients from the main tree that sustained it from the harshness of the elements. Plants need sunlight to grow and flourish but exposure to sunlight without being connected to the roots and moist soil is detrimental to it. The same element that the plant uses its energy for its growth can also destroy it when it's not connected to the natural sources - its roots and soil.

The same is true when we are disconnected from Spirit. The elements and things that are given us as a blessing to enhance our growth can become destructive because we are not governed by the Spirit. To be totally absorbed with the gifts and neglect the giver of the gifts lead one into further darkness and a life of destructive behaviour.

The balance comes about when you are connected to Spirit. Your motivations for using these gifts comes out of Spirit purposes and therefore is beneficial, not only for you the user, but for those to whom the fruit of the gifts blesses.

When one is connected to Spirit, there is a clear direction and purpose of life - to come to full maturity and naturally bear good fruit which will feed others. When one is disconnected to Spirit, life is lived haphazardly and at times destructively.

Remain connected to Spirit that you may reach your fullest potential and use your inner gifting to full capacity and bear fruit in the right season.

Nature's lessons from the broken branch - Part 1

Tending the garden of the heart - Day 75

On further observation of the broken branch of the apple tree, it may have been the weight of the fruit that broke it and not the lightening, as we initially thought. When it was being picked up it took 5 people - the kids plus Dad - to lift it up and lean it against the apple tree. We left the young apples on the branch for a couple of days and had to pick them all off because the leaves began to wither and some of the apples were shrivelling. My 7 year old could now lift up the branch by herself.

Nature provides very simple yet profound ways of showing us the spiritual side of life and how it affects us more than we realize at times. There's a whole other realm and it is the heart and soul of our lives. When we're disconnected from it we are disconnected from our life Source.

The leaves, as well as the fruit, of the broken branch began to shrivel because it was disconnected from its life source. All that it needed for its sustenance was in the main tree and because it was no longer attached, the death process began to show outwardly.

In the absence of life, there's separation and death. In the absence of light, there's darkness and in the absence of love, there's fear producing hatred.

The effectiveness of the connection to our Source is in the conscious awareness of our Source's existence and our oneness with our Source. In this awareness a relationship is established.

As the main tree is in relation to the branch as its source so is the branch as an avenue through which the main tree produces its fruit and reproduces itself.

If we see ourselves as connected to God, who is the invisible Main Tree which sustains and energizes our inner being, we would then understand the importance of our conscious awareness of and dependence on this connection. We would also see that we are one with our Main Tree even as we express our uniqueness through which it produces fruit and reproduces itself through our fruit seeds.