Trees

It's easy to see a tree as a source of shade to provide relief from the burning sun. Fruit trees  produce food that helps to sustain life. We know that trees play a critical role in taking in carbon dioxide and converting it into the oxygen that we need to live and breathe. Even a dead tree provides wood from which we build homes and furniture; its wood can fuel a campfire that gives us light and the heat we need to roast marshmallows.

As I climbed up and down trees today, with the help of a ladder, I found myself again in awe of the lessons that simple trees continue to teach. The trees I pruned have been around for forty years and have provided an unknown quantity of pears, cherries, apricots and apples. My mom also has peach trees in her backyard but they escaped any pruning today. Even though she claimed that any arborist would cringe at her choices, my mother asked that I remove any dead branches and tree growth that shot straight toward the sky.

As I moved around the tree, its bark regularly struck back leaving numerous scratches and a couple superficial cuts on my arms and legs. Weaving and bending between branches also tweaked my back just enough to make certain I'll remember the experience for a couple of days. But as I followed my mother's instructions and pruned her trees, I couldn't help but find it interesting that the act of cutting back dead branches and unwanted growth will stimulate the tree to a greater harvest in years to come. It could appear that we were harming the tree when really, we were looking for ways to preserve it and strengthen it.

A healthy tree is stronger when it no longer has to carry the weight of dead wood. When the leaves that form the outside crown of the tree are opened to allow sunlight into the interior, the tree is able to maximize its yield of fruit. Any time an unusually high branch is removed we can help direct the growth below and create a better balance and  promote stronger branches below; branches that will provide a stronger foundation to support a larger and more vigorous tree; all of these gains from a reduction in the present size of the tree.

While the human body obviously differs from a tree and the removal of a limb would not result in a stronger or more healthy body, the concept of pruning applies to us as well. Sometimes we carry a lot of dead wood that keeps as weighed down and unable to develop as we should. Other times we grow so fast that our foundations cannot support the rapid rise. We can benefit from periodic self-pruning before we crash from an external storm. We will also always benefit from opening up our souls to allow the light from above to illuminate our interior and prepare us for a better harvest tomorrow.