Pruning The Tangles

Hello. Let’s inhale. Let’s exhale. Breath is life, y’all, so let’s do that again. Inhale. Exhale. Welcome to a Hit of Hope. I’d like to know which I do more—write salty meditations or turn to the Oxford English Dictionary for inspiration. Who cares? Let’s do both in this one, shall we?

I hate to garden, which is kinda funny because my house that I just bought is known for its beautiful gardens.

Transcript

Hello. Why don't we take a big inhale and then let it go. Breath is life. So let's do that again. Inhaling. Exhaling. Welcome to a hit of hope. I'd like to know which I do more. Turn to the Oxford English Dictionary for inspiration or write salty meditations. Doesn't matter. This one though is gonna do both. So I hate to garden which is kind of funny because the house that I just bought is known around town for its beautiful gardens. While I love to look at gardens I hate to weed. There are always too many weeds and more often than not the little fuckers just won't come out. Kinda like bad thoughts or old wounds. Inhale. Exhale. I thought there was something else that I hated to do and that's pruning. Lots of spindly bushes and branches here at my new place and seeing the sheer number of them overwhelmed me. But once I started pruning a few days ago that act offered me all kinds of lessons. So to fully appreciate those lessons let's get our Oxford English Dictionary on so we know exactly what pruning it is. Its definition is to cut branches or twigs from something in order to regulate growth and promote flowering or fruit production. So let's break that down. The first part of that definition is that you get rid of some things in order to regulate growth. Now notice it doesn't say control growth but regulate which I love because regulate means to direct growth and that's often exactly what we need to do. While I love the idea of opening up into all kinds of yeses in life we have to say no. No matter how amazing you are and believe me you are amazing but no matter how amazing you are you cannot do it all. So in order to grow in the best ways you have to cut some shit out. You have to say no. I will not give my time and energy to this or that because I know it's gonna drain me. The key is to cut out the right things. No shit Betsy but seriously to cut out the right things. What do you need to prune and remove from your life so that you can grow in the ways and the directions that you want to grow. Rather than living inside a cluster duck of tangled and dying branches identify those things and then find the right tools to remove those things from your life. Now that kind of sounds violent. That's what I've often thought about pruning or its little sibling thinning. One time I planted a whole bunch of carrot seeds and before long a multitude of beautiful green and whispery plants grew up out of the good soil. It was clear even to a clueless gardener like me that while those Lilliputian little green things were now alive and vibrant soon they would be fighting for resources. If I didn't want a civil war of carrots I needed to pull some in order to give others the best chance to grow. Let's just pause and say that can feel icky on a cosmic or theological or societal level who gets pulled who gets the best chances to grow and honest to goodness that really bears thinking on in our society and as a world with dwindling resources but for this moment let's keep it at the level of the personal. What do you need to get rid of to give other things in your life and self the best chance to grow? The second part of the definition of pruning is that you get rid of some things in order to promote flowering. Have you ever noticed how there are things and people in our lives that are like weed killer? What or whom is turning you all wilted and brown? Alternatively what are the things that bring you all kinds of goodness and light so you can blossom? Inhale, Exhale. So we don't just need to get rid of the bad shit we need to seek out the good shit the good manure the things that will lead to an explosion of blossoms in your life. And lastly to prune means you get rid of some things so you can direct your energy toward fruit production. Now we often hear that saccharine fruits of our labors but seriously what you do bears fruit and do you want the fruit in your life to be poisonous like that apple the dumb bunny Snow White eats even when the dwarves warn her again and again not to be stupid and take shit from strangers. So do you want to be like her or would you rather put your creative juices into making something sweet and full ripe and ready to bring delight? And that just might be giving someone your full attention. So it doesn't have to be to save the entire world but as Mother Teresa says what are the small acts you can do with great love because those small acts will bear fruit in this world. So get out your tools which include breathing and meditation and remove the dead and gnarled branches tangling up your life. But that's not all my friends oh no you need to be sure and carry those things away from you. Remove them from you because otherwise there's a huge pile of kindling ready to burst into an overwhelming flame with the slightest careless match. Prune yourself and prune yourself free which makes me laugh because my pop my grandfather religiously ate five prunes a day to free himself of the bad shit so he could live a good life. Inhale exhale now get out there and live the fucking shit out of your day. Namaste.

Reviews

Awesome! I love gardening and this analogy was perfect for me today. I am experiencing some overwhelming emotions with an upcoming move. Just breathe

I hate gardening too! I really liked the similarities of life you stated about pruning. The civil war of carrots was 😂 so while it was meaningful your style made me smile! On point with the weeding description too! 🙌

Thank you Betsy! I love gardening but never viewed pruning this way, so helpful! Love this talk, saving to come back to regularly. Have a great day!

Perfectly seasoned, as usual 😉 🙏

I had to pause so I would remember to say how much I enjoyed the pending civil war of carrots. You are an artist of words. And oh how I appreciate another person who really dissects words. Im going to work on disecting clusterduck this week. Lol
My only concern with this is that if I start pruning I just may never stop. Not much of a gardmer myself but have been setting up the space for 1 the last few weeks. Let me know how yours goes.
Namaste 🙏 duck