This summer season is very different for me this year compared to last year, as one can imagine.

2.5 years ago I launched Lucie’s Wreaths. A hobby of mine for over a decade that I decided to turn into a micro-business. I cleared out a junky mudroom, and converted the room into a space to dry flowers and make dried floral pieces (mostly wreaths and crowns). Fall of 2022 was my first year filling this room with plants.

My energy during the summers has always been one of gathering. It requires a lot of endurance and discipline to gather plants this time of year. You can’t harvest in the mornings as the plants are still dewey. It’s the kind of work that must be done during the heat of day, or early evening, wearing long dresses, boots, a hat and sometimes a canvas coat if the bugs are bad.

This year my 31 week pregnant body is not interested at all in collecting plants to dry. I’ve waited to see if the urge would arise, in the past its been an insatiable urge to forage and collect plants, and I’ve concluded that I am much more interested in nesting this year instead of gathering.

So yesterday I folded to reality. I allowed my instincts to lead me, and I converted my wreath room into a much cleaner, neater and fresher space. It’s an office, open space for the baby that is on their way, and storage space (we have no closets in our house). And it was deeply gratifying to do it. I’m mid process, but here it is for now…

One would think that letting go of a hobby would be sad and difficult. And I’m not saying goodbye forever. I’m just placing it on the shelf for now because Life is asking me to focus my energy elsewhere. Early pregnancy was marked by a lot of grief. A reckoning with how much my life was and is about to change. And through grieving, I’ve come to a place of readiness to let go of what’s no longer a necessary part of my life. In the way the umbilical stump falls away. Or ripened fruit releases easily from a tree. What was how I spent 90% of my free time- foraging, drying, and weaving is now being reduced to about 2%. And that is alright. I can make room for change. In fact, I feel deep satisfaction, pleasure, and a lightness surrounding this letting go. It feels exactly like what it is I am to be doing. I’m thinking of it as self pruning.

Tossing out a few of the haggard bundles of dried flowers I had saved for several seasons felt like taking a deep breath of cool mountain air. I did save what was in good condition, some grasses and gomphrena and rudbeckia I can work into crowns or something. But I was holding on to so much junk thinking I’ll use it one day it was starting to clog up my air space- mentally, physically, and spiritually.

So here is to self pruning! We prune plants to shape growth, encourage new growth, and remove the old. Do you have things in your life you’re clinging to that are actually holding you back? That are inhibiting your future self from unfolding? It might be time to self- prune. This can look like cleaning closets. Giving away to Goodwill. Or quitting a habit or stopping a ritual that no longer serves. Or letting yourself stop a hobby because life is inviting you into a new direction. Or crying tears. There are many ways and things we can prune, and remember the point is to bring in new life. To live a little lighter.

Volunteers are the mightiest of garden plants.

I planted several sunflowers this year, and a couple volunteered from last year’s mother plants that bloomed and set seed in my patch. This sunflower tree that came up on it’s own is nearly 13 feet!

Look at all those blooms! A bit too high to reach without a ladder.

My favorite way to treat myself. Cutting fresh blooms to enjoy in the house.

May you be well. May we all have plenty. May we be grateful for what we are given. May we be content with how things are.

Love,

Lucie