I’ve been working in the garden these past few days of unseasonal warmth and dryness. After two weeks of illness I really wanted to be out and moving in the sun. I wanted to DO something where I could immediately SEE the results.
I started on the weeds: onethera, bermuda grass, morning glory, and hops run rampant. We have lots of twiny, viny plants that can be beautiful. They can also take over the garden when that is not the intent.
Next I attacked a fence that we’d put around the garden when we had a dog almost 10 years ago. The fence has been sitting there, no longer serving a purpose, and in fact, hindering our gardening efforts. After much pulling, prodding, detaching, unwinding and a bit of digging, I finally pulled it free. I was filled with a sense of relief, energy, accomplishment.
Then I started on the honeysuckle gone wild. It was strangling an already intertwined planting of rosebush, cedar tree and crape myrtle. The cedar is overshadowing the garden and robbing the nearest bed of nutrients. I made my way through the honeysuckle, lopping off cedar branches as I went. I was using a pair of tree loppers and a small hand saw which required all my strength.
Grunting, groaning, talking to myself, “Take that, I’ll show you, Hah!” I glanced up and saw my neighbors across the fence looking at me strangely. I smiled sheepishly and wondered why I was enjoying this SO MUCH???
Lightbulb moment.
Oh, this is what I am trying to do in the rest of my life: remove self-limiting behaviors that served me in the past but now just get in my way.
I need to prune, tame and take charge of obligations that would consume ALL my energy and attention if I let them. I can’t remove them completely, but I’m changing how I deal with some of these demands.
Pruning back, so I have some more room to grow.
Have you had any January epiphanies, garden or otherwise?
Are there areas of your life you are planning to prune?
Limits you are ready to remove-or set- in your life?
How will you do it? What is your next step?