The Art of Pruning
I have lived in my house for six years now. A year or so into living here, my husband and I hired a landscape architect company to redo our front landscaping and take out two trees that did nothing but drop sap on our cars in the driveway. (I do love trees, and we have plenty more in and around our yard.) Now that I had personally chosen and paid for all of the plants in front of our house, I had a newfound sense of responsibility for taking care of them. As any gardener would know, one of the best ways to care for your plants is through proper pruning. Little did I know different plants (and even different varietals of hydrangea!) need to be pruned at different times of the year for peak blooms. I now regularly prune my plants at the proper times, water them when it’s been hot and dry in the summer, and fertilize them once or twice a year.
If you are still reading (and I hope you are), you may be asking yourself why I have suddenly decided to start writing about gardening. I assure you I have not. I only mention pruning in my garden as it relates to pruning in other areas of my life. As a new mother of three, I find that I am regularly overstimulated with two small children loudly calling for my attention all day and a baby crying over their noise when he’s hungry or too tired. Darn those missed sleepy cues! Maybe I would notice them more often if he were my only child…
It would be easy to give up and say that I can’t do much about the overstimulation, but giving up is not my style. So, what do I do? I prune. We cut back on television time and “running around/wild” games. I go to Michael’s and pick up more craft supplies. I plan some new crafts and reading activities that I can work on with my girls. Do I always want to be planning things for the next day when the kids are finally asleep and I’m tired? No. Will I regret not having anything organized or planned the following day if I just watch a show instead? Most certainly. And so I prune my own activities, too. My life is very busy these days, and my time to myself is limited. That is the season of life I’m living, and I can’t change that. What I can change is how I spend those small pockets of time. For me, it is important to choose activities that will promote calm and peace in my home. It’s the best thing for my kids, and it’s the best thing for me. There will be time to watch shows or read more again down the road. In this season, sometimes even reading time gets pruned. And that’s ok.
I also firmly believe in pruning friendships as you grow. That doesn’t mean I need to cut people out of my life completely, but I no longer feel pressured to spend time that I have very little of with people who don’t help me grow in some way. You know that saying, “Show me who your friends are, and I’ll show you who you are?” I agree with it. You become like the people with whom you surround yourself, so I choose to surround myself with people who think deeply and choose kindness.
As you look at your own life these days, what areas need to be pruned? Is there an activity that has been taking up too much of your precious time? Is there a friendship or a relationship that is no longer serving you? Cut off the parts of your life that are draining your energy, and you just may find yourself blooming anew. I certainly hope that you do.
