By the Way: Antlers, willow branches and habits

By Bob Findley on January 7, 2023.

I recently watched a remarkable video of moose shedding his antlers in a farmyard, caught on a door camera. At first everything seemed normal. Then the moose stopped and had a whole body shiver, almost a shudder. Then with a that, the antlers came flying off, and moose wildly ran off into the trees. Not sure if he was scared or feeling the freedom. Moose, elk, deer and reindeer all shed their antlers so they can grow new ones, bigger ones in the new year.

Not too long ago, a winter storm blew tons of branches onto our yard, long after the season of Fall. Why so many branches? So that it can grow new branches and shoots in spring. To make ready for new leaves, new foliage, the burgeoning of new growth from the fresh nutrients of spring and another summer.

Likewise, sometimes we need to shed old habits, maybe even activities so that we can be ready for new habits, new activities, new events to come in a new season. It is releasing the old to be ready to develop something new. Something needed, something fresh in a new season of life…in a new year.

I am reminded that some of the leaves don’t all fall when the rest do. They seem to be stuck or to adhere more tightly to the old branch. But when spring comes, it is the new growth that finally dislodges to old leaf; a new one is formed in its place. Aaah, the fresh look of spring.

What needs to be shed, released, let go of so that we can grow something new, something even bigger and more Grand? We will never know until we are willing to shed what was of the past. Maybe it was a memory, a struggle of the past, a pandemic of stress. Let it go so our hearts, our lives will be ready to grow new ones.

God bless you with the freedom of the past and the potential, the hope of this year.

Bob Findley is the chaplain for St. Joseph’s Home/Hospice

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