The Practice of Pruning

Posted by LeeAnn on May 17th, 2010 at 12:52pm

The Practice of Pruning Pruning is both an art form and act of clear vision. Pruning supports trees and such in being their most productive version of themselves. The act cuts away deadwood, damaged, weak or unproductive parts of the plant or tree.

Growing up in orchard country, pruning is a yearly practice. In order to help the tree support the fruit it is to bear, the orchardist makes the cuts that will allow for health and well-being. Sometimes those cuts are deep.

I have had to do pruning in my own life. I have had to face and make the decision to cut out any thing that is not working in my life; and that has included habits, actions, people and even ways of being. Those decision have been met with resistance; both my own and resistance from other people. It has been hard and the results have made it worth it.

Yearly I make it a practice to reflect and take the necessary steps to prune away the dead wood or that which no longer serves me. When was the last time you did a little constructive pruning?

One of the areas that I had to prune away has been that of people pleasing. The act of people pleasing comes from the need to “care take” other people. It comes from putting others first in the hopes that once those we are caring taking get “enough,” they will turn and meet our needs. And that is a fantasy. No amount of care taking can fill the hole in the soul of another. Only they can truly meet their own needs.

Rather than care taking other people, our job is to take care of ourselves. Not in a selfish way, but in a way that allows us to support legitimate needs, just not take on the weight of the other person’s story of their broken-ness. Our job is to prune away any tendencies that sap our energies and prevent us from bearing fruit.

My family taught me well that my job was to take care of my parents. As a child I had no idea that it was suppose to be the other way around. I have had to do some serious work to understand what a healthy relationship looks like and have become very good a pruning.

So what in your life needs pruning? How would some very strategic cuts bring about a better harvest in time, energy and relational satisfaction?

In the human world, pruning can be a year round activity – are you ready?

Happy trails,