Pruning
As I prune my rose bushes and contemplate a hard pruning of my pear tree (and soon as time is running out), I reflected on pruning for personal growth.
Pruning is essential to the health, shape, beauty and flourishing of trees, shrubs, hedges, vines, and many flowering plants. Hard pruning and light pruning all play a part in the process. Even ‘root pruning’ is needed periodically for potted plants or they become ‘root-bound’ and die.
So, too, it is essential to regularly prune and trim our personal growth in order to attain mature, healthy form, strength and dis-ease free living. I like the quote below from 1300AD:
“What is essential to practice the Tao is to get rid of cravings and vexations. If these afflictions are not removed, it is impossible to attain stability. This is like the case of the fertile field, which cannot produce good crops as long as the weeds are not cleared away. Cravings and ruminations are the weeds of the mind; if you do not clear them away, concentration and wisdom do not develop.”
~Chang San-feng
I invite you to do some personal pruning…it is the season.
