Pruning-Preparing for Growth

Pruning-Preparing for Growth

Yesterday we drove past a filbert orchard.  Filberts are also called hazelnuts.

Filbert orchards are truly a work of art.  Even in winter when the trees are resting and preparing for the work of producing fruit, they are beautiful.  There must be a formula for planting the filbert orchards as the trees are perfectly spaced from one another.   When they are mature, the tops gently touch one another yet do not interfere with the process of producing their wonderful gift.

Remember how a carpet looks after it has been vaccumed and before any feet have touched it?  That is how the ground looks in a filbert orchard.  Perfect.  Clean.  Not one bit of grass showing--anywhere.  Pride of ownership shines in these orchards.  They are well cared for.

As we drove past this one, I noticed that workers had been in the orchard preparing it for spring.  Pruning had taken place.  Scattered among the stately trees were small piles of discarded limbs.  Limbs that, for whatever reason, needed to be cut from the trees.  For the trees to produce and be healthy, that which causes damage and decay has to be removed.  I wondered if it hurt the trees when the saw was applied.  Or was there relief to have the damaged section removed.  Soon workers will drive a tractor through the orchard and remove those piles.  Once again the orchard will be spotless.  As the earth warms, sap will flow and the work of the trees will begin.  They will be ready for their mission in life.

Pruning is not a one time thing.  It happens over and over as  trees grow and change.  It is necessary for the health of the tree.  For it to produce in abundance, that which does not produce must be removed.  I suppose a point is reached when pruning has done all it can do.  At that point the tree is probably removed from the orchard.  Such life lessons!

During this season of the year we are asked to think about our own lives.  Our strengths, our weaknesses.  The way we treat others.  The way we see injustice and move to correct it.  The options we have to provide for those who need what we can give.  We are asked to examine ourselves and remove--prune, if you will--at least one thing that is not positive.  One area of our lives that could use the saw.  One area that we realize needs attention yet have been reluctant to begin the process.  We are asked to think.  To be honest with ourselves.  To acknowledge that we might have hurt someone.  Might.  Certainly not intentional.  But if intentional, to claim that part of ourselves that needs to be removed.

Pruning is difficult work.  First, we have to admit that something within us is not the best for us or others.  We have to stop blaming others for our own bad behavior.  We have to look ourselves in the eye and say we have not been our best.  That is probably the most difficult part of this process.  Admitting our own faults is so much more difficult than listing the faults of others.  Yes, we do tend to make lists, don't we?  We don't like this and this and this.  We don't like the way someone else thinks, talks, acts.  We feel totally justified with our feelings.  They deserve our contempt, don't they?  They, they, they.  Behaving in this way means we have turned our attention away from ourselves.  We no longer see what is inconsistent within us.  We only see what we don't like in them--those who are not like us.  Who don't think like us.  Who might walk to the beat of a different drum.  Instead of celebrating and loving others, we see their faults.  And they are enough to drive us mad.

Oh--how we would love to take that saw and prune the heck right out of them!  We could make them so much better if we only had the chance.  We could remove this, and this, and this.  The result would be a much more healthy person.  And we would be responsible for it all.  Aren't we grand?  Aren't we loving?  Don't we have the health of the other as our first priority?

You see the fallacy in this, don't you?   Long ago and in a distant land I learned that the only person I can change is me.  Doesn't keep me from trying once in awhile to assist another!!:)  I learned that we are all different, and while I may not understand certain behaviors in others, they are entitled to those behaviors even if they are hurtful.  I am still learning to walk away from toxic relationships.  Those don't happen often, but they do happen to us all.  I am learning to accept the good in me and to work toward removing one piece at a time that needs to be placed on a pile and eventually removed from my life.  I am learning that this is an on-going process.  One pruning does not cover a lifetime.

I am grateful for the opportunity to remove those areas of my life that do not bring goodness into this world.  In a world so full of hate and cruelty, why in the world would I want to add to that?  

So, I will select one area of my life that could use a little work, and go for it.  It will be my secret.  My own pruning.  It will be a positive thing in my life.  For removing that which is of no use can only bring a better life.