Pruning Lessons: A Metaphor
Tonight I'm going to wander a bit to get to the point of my essay. Please bear with me for this reflective discourse into the metaphorical.
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By My Hand
Today I played God looking for the soul of a tree.
Taking pruning shears in hand I studied the artful structure of a bare-branched sumac tree in my garden.
The goal was to enhance the gnarled growth of the tree; to make more of it than it was would be one way to look at it.
But it felt more like a kinship asking the tree to show me where it wanted to go.
Where it was too crowded?
Where it needed to be left alone?
At times the decisions felt immense and took many false starts; other times it was obvious what to do.
Pruning like living is a mixture of skill and experience.
Living like pruning sometimes takes a couple of seasons to know if the results are worth the effort.
That the cuts did more good than harm.
That in the end more balance was gained.
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