spring cleaning is an ongoing task

 this is my night flowering jasmine

every year it is the same story

the vine grows full and covers as much of the fence as I will allow

and by August it is covered in tiny white flowers,

flowers whose fragrance fills the evening air

after the blooms fade the vine continues to be green cover until winter

then it dies,

turns brown

and is downright ugly

and every spring I have a job to do:

remove what was once alive,

but is now dead 

so what is new can grow, 

unhindered

this evening I am pondering my life

I think there are things in it that have been vibrant in the past,

alive and beautiful,

but are no longer viable

I can allow them to hang on,

new life will grow,

but it will be hampered 

and definitely won't shine like it should

and so I am asking my Heavenly Father,

the Perfect Gardener,

 to prune what is spent 

so that what is new 

can thrive 

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. Every branch in me that does not produce fruit he removes, and he prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me. If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers. They gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be my disciples." John 15:1-8 CSB