The apple tree in my yard, you ask?
Yes, that apple tree in your yard – What are you doing with it?
Driving along the highway last week, I passed an apple orchard. The trees were all nicely arranged in their separate rows. What caught my attention was how neatly they were shaped.
The stragglers have been cut off, the excess has been trimmed and the tree has been shaped. The tree is left with the core part where the nutrition, light and water can be concentrated and limited for maximum benefit. To use those resources in an area that’s not going to bring any fruit would be a total waste! It also affects the quality of the fruit that does grow. It’s called pruning!
So, that apple tree in the yard of your life…what are you doing with it? The apple tree called your dreams. The apple tree called your family. The apple tree called your friends. The apple tree called your future. The apple tree called your finances. The apple tree called your thoughts or emotions?
What apple tree in your life needs some focus? Where do you need to cut off some straggling branches that aren’t giving much to your life but are soaking up and draining your precious time, energy, thoughts and resources? Are they certain people, certain activities, certain behaviors or expectations? What if you pruned those branches of life back? Maybe in some cases, you just cut the whole branch off. With that extra time, energy, thoughts and resources now freed up, what could you do, dream or accomplish? Could you breathe easier, be less stressed or enjoy what you have more? How would it change your life to focus on what’s most important to you and let go of the rest?
Pruning is about letting go which involves being, doing or choosing different. When a person comes to cut off or trim the branches, the main part of the tree will remain. The best part, the very core of life, will remain and continue to grow great fruit. Pruning is not that something is being taken from us, or that we are losing the very essence of us. In fact, by letting go of the extra, the burdens, the excess, and stragglers in our life, we can focus on the most important. We can live a life of better quality.
What traditions need to be reviewed for the value they add to your life? Are some just burdens or are some “just because” and you’re not sure why you have them? Are there some traditions you value a lot, but you could attend to with “less” time, effort and resources and more quality instead? One can of concentrated juice goes just as far as four cans of premade (watered down) juice. Sometimes less is more. Less to do means more time off. Less chaos means more peace.
Where in your life have you tried to water down or stretch something out? What are things you think you have to do versus you want to do, get to do, love to do or look forward to doing? What steals your time and what would you like to have more time for? Get out those pruning shears called decisions!
Over the last few months in my own life without realizing it, I’ve done some pruning by making different decisions on what brings value; decisions where I am, where I want to go as well as where I don’t want to be anymore. I’ve done some pruning by looking at how some of my choices leave me unfulfilled; waste my money, time and life. Mostly they are little things, but it’s brought me to a different place in life. The “hurried” life is gone. I actually have time to enjoy more of my life. Some people are being repositioned in my life…maybe to the point of being eliminated from my life. I still have to catch myself in other areas and work on aligning myself with what is most important, what is fulfilling and what is in line with my true purpose and values.
It takes a while adjusting to process and choose differently, but I am looking forward to seeing more quality in the fruit, the results, of the apple trees in my yard called life! So here’s to pruning and loving the results!
How about you?