Necessary Ending

The rose that was pruned
The rose that was pruned

I’ve been reading a great book recently. ‘Necessary Endings‘ by Dr. Henry Cloud shone a bright ray of hope into a fog of confusion and negativity.

In it, the author uses the image of a rose.

I was in my own garden yesterday and my very favourite rose – the yellow one – was just coming into bloom. I love it because when the flowers are just starting their petals hold just a thin line of red on their delicate, wafer-thin ends. Then they bloom into a magnificent gold and finally fade into chrome pink.

I noticed that the first and biggest flower had 2 little flowers growing off the same stem and I knew straight away they had to be pruned so that the first flower could reach its full magnificence. Similarly, I know that in a few days I’ll have to prune off that first flower so that when it’s faded beyond the chrome pink stage that I really like, other flowers can grow in its place.

I choose the endings for my rose. These endings are not failure. The endings are so that the rose can be at its best.

If you’ve read my blog recently you’ll have noticed that half way through my #LentBlog back in March I stopped writing abruptly. You may also know that in May I resigned from my current position and as recently as yesterday (Wednesday) was successful at interview for a new job in September.

I have experienced a necessary ending.

Pruning sounds like a harsh word when applied to people, because it speaks of being cut off for good and implies failure. While my story does involve failure, I do believe that the ending was both necessary and good.

There’s a lot I want to share about the successes, failures, regrets and hopes of the last few weeks and months. I also hope to ‘end well’ at my current work place. I intend to share that here in a new sequence of posts labelled #NecessaryEndings.

 

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