if you clicked on this video you obviously resonate with the idea of turning a page in your life this month and that's completely normal and natural it's spring here in the forest at the moment and if you think the whole of nature is turning a page at this phase at this time of the year it's moving out of a period of depression of being stifled of resistance and lack and it's springing forth into growth and development that's completely normal all of these trees all of these plants lost their leaves over the winter but now they're
ready to move forward that's not a phase of growth and development that's being stuck and depressed but depression is just a normal part of life winter is just as normal as summer but you're probably yearning for the growth and development phase and it's coming so I would invite you to move with nature and use this period of growth and really be like the plants be like the trees because they're going to burst forth with new leaves that will eventually flower and become fruitful in the height of Summer but let's not get ahead of ourselves so
you want to move with nature and turn a page in your life you're ready to put away what has come before and move into the future so and that's optimistic that's very optimistic especially when you look at nature and how beautiful it flourishes in these periods of growth and development so I've got a little bit of a perspective for you I find it interesting that that spring lines up with the season of Lent so lent starts on Ash Wednesday so you got two days lent starts and it carries on for 40 days and this is
a period of spiritual growth and development but I've just got a quick Bible verse that I that came to mind when I was thinking about this just thinking about spring in general everything come into life and really growing and developing so I thought of the um Bible verse John 15 verse 5 I am the vine you are the branches if you remain in me and I in you you will bear much fruit apart from me you can do nothing so this is having faith in God and it uses the vine analogy but if you look
at these trees there is an animating force that brings the leaves every year it happens every time they don't know and we don't know what's causing it but some things causing it and it's the same in our lives there's an animating Force so have faith that that is going to bring the energy of growth into your life and then I was thinking along along the lines of the Vine I grow different plants I grow beautiful roses my favorite one is actually funny enough I got this before I went on the Catholic Journey but it's called
the pilgrim beautiful yellow roses and in my experience I grow grape Vines I grow roses so if you think of the grape vine God is is the vine and we are the branches whenever I grow vines or roses I always use a trellis so you can grow a a perfectly good rose bush without a trellis but it just it's so much better and so much stronger produces more flowers because there's structure for the rose to grow around so I think this is true in life when you're moving into a season of growth and development lean
on a structure lean on a trellis and I've had many trellises are many structures over the years and it depends what your belief systems are you don't need to use the same one as me but it might be the gym going to the gym and having a friend or a personal trainer that's your structure you lean on them and they help you in this period of growth because it's not easy the rose bush on its own kind of grows tall and then flops over but with a trellis if you look at any commercial gra uh
any commercial Vineyard always use trellises they just wire fences that run for miles and miles and the grape Vines grow up and along and it gives the grape structure the the vine itself is in the ground and then the branches which is us go against the trellis so I'm inviting you to find your trellis what's your structure that you're going to lean on is it a gym is it a training partner is it the practice of cold showers so the thing that's going to help you move into this season of growth and development are habits
it's simple and you don't need to reinvent the wheel these trees do the same habit every year and it's the Habit that works and it's producing leaves everything in this Forest pretty much will produce leaves because that's where it gets the sunlight and creates energy enough to produce flowers and bear fruit so there are simple habits and it's a handful of habits if you're a human which you probably are it's a simple handful of habits that work the first habit the trellis that I lent on that pretty much saved my life was cold water exposure
I invited my friend to support me in going in the sea once a week my mental health was quite bad and that really helped me so that was the trellis the structure that I lent on and the structure changed over the years as I've changed then it was the gym then it was a diet that I found that worked for me so now I'll just share with you where I'm at at the moment it's the Catholic church and it doesn't have to be for you it could be anything it could be cold showers it could
be gratitude journaling it could be prayer meditation all of these things have worked for me and they will probably work for you but at the moment I'm thinking about lent so lent starts on Ash Wednesday and Carries On for 40 days after that and I find it interesting that it coin coincides with spring and you're given the trellis that works so the three things that you're you're meant to do during the period of Lent are fasting prayer and arms giving so if you just think about these from a secular perspective fasting is not doing things
it's abstaining from things so I've advocated this before abstaining from social media we know is beneficial abstaining from unhealthy Foods if you're trying to lose weight or get healthier abstaining from palatable Foods well that's clearly going to be of benefit so you could get on the the structure the trellis of length this would be beneficial to you even if you're not religious fasting even just intermittent fasting this might be a practice that you're leaning on anyway well that's built into this Catholic Christian period of lent it could be degenerate things like porn or you know
really alcohol fasting from these things removing them from your life it it's beneficial whether you're religious or not then you've got prayer this is bringing to mind the gratitude for what you have being grateful that the Creator God whatever you want to call it has provided you with this beautiful life and being Mindful and present about what you want like how do I want to move forward in this time of of growth heavenly father I'm extremely grateful for the blessing of this beautiful Forest that I can come in every day moving forward I would like
to continue to grow this YouTube channel as I have done already and you've helped me develop and move in this way so prayer every day every day you pray you show gratitude and just talk to whatever you think is moving all of this whatever you think is producing leaves on these trees could be nature could be God whatever then you got arms giving and this one might be a little bit further removed from what we used to we got the good habits we got the cold showers things like that but the arms giving is a
selfless act and we're all one family so if you help other people you're helping yourself anyway you can do this in a selfish way but I'll let you um arms giving is just helping the poor for giving your time or money or energy to other people so I'll let you explore that one on your own I'm going on my own Journey with that the other things I've got plenty of experience on I've meditated for years I've prayed I've fasted I'll speak about I did a nday fast I'll speak about that at some point so I've
got experience but the the arms giving this is one I'm going to be more conscious of moving forward so that's my invitation move into this period of growth and development and find a trellis to lean on you can do it on your own you can be the rose bush that kind of just grows in a crazy fashion and makes a big bush or you can find a fence to grow up and have structure and follow the path that somebody else has led for you you don't need to reinvent the will so I leave you with
one more Bible verse this is job 147 to9 at least there is hope for a tree if it is cut down it will Sprout again and its new shoots will not fail its root May grow old in the ground and it stump Dy in the soil yet at the scent of water it will bud and put forth shoots like a plant so I look at my garden that I grow my roses when I prune them and cut them down they look like dead sticks in the ground this Forest when they lose all their leaves these
trees even a tree if you cut it fully down it looks dead so you're in a period of depression of dorcy your life looks dead and fruitless but at the proper time at the proper season these buds shoot forth and it's like a full-on tree again so it's miraculous how you can go from nothing to something and that's by the grace of God so I invite you to be optimistic in this period and participate all you have to do is do the habits find the systems that help you grow in the areas you're looking to
grow in and it's a beautiful thing and I look forward to seeing what you put out into the world this this energy that you you bring in this period so I hope that helps speak to your soon come on he
