TREE TRIMMING

We’ve been spared major hurricanes for several years now. Even the tropical storms have been relatively gentle to us, although they have dumped a lot of rain on some inland states. We have a very large oak tree in the front yard which was left leaning after our last hurricane. Although it has a tilt towards the road, our experience tells us that the tilt is little indication of which direction a hurricane might take it. The tree was getting so thick with branches that it let little sunlight or rain through it for quite a radius. Knowing that tree companies are hard to get once a tropical storm is in the Gulf, we had a tree company get the tree “hurricane ready.” On Monday, for nearly three hours, they pruned the tree with the use of a bucket truck.

Like our tree, I think that we sometimes get a little thick in our thinking…not letting the sunshine of wisdom or the nourishment of rain pass through. As the years pass by, it’s easy to let unpleasant experiences with people and life taint our general overall perspective. While our actual negative experiences may be rather few, it seems natural to let the negative experiences have a profound effect on us and those around us. Our thinking gets so thickened and full of redundant branches that we need an occasional pruning too. It’s good to periodically take emotional inventory to see what negative characteristics have crept into our psyche. Perhaps we’ve become resentful, hold grudges, carry hurt feelings, or have become too indifferent. These are good matters to prune from our minds. Then we too can stand in the strong winds of life and allow the sunshine and nourishment of life to flow through us.