8 Words for Those Who Care
The moist smell of cool, morning, summer air stirred lightly past my nostrils and I breathed it in… deeply.
Pepper, our cat, was playing with an unlucky toad. A young robin kept an eye on the cat as it pecked at the bird feeder. The steady sound of water trickling down our fountain provided the perfect backdrop for nature’s symphony as birds chatted, bickered, and issued feline warnings.
Orange carnation and red climbing roses were peeking out again after rainfall from the previous night that offered a break to the relentless heat. Even the pigeon cooing from the power line had a calming effect on my soul as it harmonized with our bamboo wind chimes.
6:15 am.
I was so thankful to be in that moment. And I was so thankful that the pruning worked.
As I had pruned back the rose bushes some time earlier, I worried that they might never grow back again. But, since I didn’t really prune them much at all the previous season and the blooms were dismal, I had no choice. I had to try.
It seemed counterintuitive to cut them back…to prune. But on that morning in that sacred space, I witnessed the beautiful bounty of rose bushes made possible in part by pruning.
And so it is with our own lives. On a regular basis, we need to reflect and choose what needs pruning. The act of pruning is inherently a “No” activity. Sometimes a strong “No” yields a bountiful “Yes.”
Worth Repeating
Give a lot, expect a lot, and if you don’t get it, prune.
-Thomas J. Peters
