Time to prune?

We lost a big chunk off of one of our big trees with last week’s snow storm, and I spent a lot of time today cleaning up the mess.  It gave me some time to think about the importance of pruning, especially since this is the time of year that I look at trimming my obligations and commitments for the upcoming year.

Pruning is good, and it’s healthy.

Why would you prune a plant?

• There’s deadwood, branches that just aren’t alive or sound anymore.
• The plant needs help to put its energy into the most fruitful (!) direction.
• You need to prepare the plant for transplanting.
• You want to help form the plant into a pleasing shape.

The lesson we should take away from this is that simplifying our own lives, pruning them, is a healthy and useful thing:

• We need to clear away the obligations that just aren’t useful anymore.
• We need to create space to put our energy into more fruitful activities.
• We need to prepare for and respond to life changes.
• We need to move our life into more spiritual shape, focusing on who we’re becoming rather than just what we’re doing.

Pruning away activities can result in wounds, just as pruning a tree.  But ultimately it’s necessary, healthy and useful.

Rather like taking care of your physical health by trimming away the excess, how would you like to trim away the excess obligations to help your spiritual health?