A Little Trimming: Part 2

Note to Self:

Don't ever try to second-guess the City of Tempe and the new time of the bulk trash pick-up.

 



Whenever we get motivated to do "a little" trimming in our lives of that dry, dusty, dying stuff under the surface... assume it will turn into a much bigger, longer project than you think.  As you can see from my photo, my hedges have gone from being a somewhat ordinary-looking row of 4ft. high hedges by our front door, to what has become a traveling amoeba of dry, tangled branches - first lying in wait on the front curb, but now trying to hide-out for the next month and a half in an obscure corner of our walled-in backyard. Yes,  I missed the "green/bulk waste" pick-up.  No, there won't be another one until October.

 

As I spent a few anxious days calling the City, not getting a response, trying to figure out what to do...and then tying up the whole kit'n kaboodle and tossing it over the wall to hide discretely from our neighbors and Homeowner's Association watch until October...I had some more time to reflect on the "trimming" projects in our lives.  Here's what I learned:

• It's good to get the old stuff pruned away...but just because you've finally done the chopping, it doesn't necessarily mean the old stuff is gone. It's still there. Everytime you look out the window in the morning...at noon...at night...it's still there.
 
• Other people may not fix it for you in the way or time you expect or desire.  Their schedule is not required to change to fit the effects of your trimming catharsis.  You are going to have to take responsibility for your own sh....rubs.
   
• When it becomes obvious that your old stuff is not going away as easily or efficiently as you had hoped, your work is not done. You can't just walk away from it. Remember, you LIVE here.  You need to take some intentional action to make life liveable for both yourself and your neighbors, at least until there can be some more permanent resolution.
• A big pile of sh...rubs can become more manageable when made into smaller piles. So take the time necessary and portion it out into smaller pieces. Tie some twine around it and you are good to go.
• Place your old stuff in a space in your life that has some boundaries.  You need to protect the space of your newly cleansed life, and your neighbor's space, from the remnant pile of old stuff you haven't quite managed to get rid of yet.
• Then, CIRCLE the date on your calendar for the first Monday morning in October, 6 a.m., set your reminders and your alarms...do your planning and follow-through to bring a responsible close to this trimming saga of your life.  Yes, you are going to have to drag this stuff out one more time, move the whole pile over the wall and out to the front curb again...but you've tied it in small bundles already, and with a little planning, you can ask someone to help you this time.

 

 

 

 





A Little Trimming

Memo to Whom It May Concern:

Think twice before asking Barb

to trim the hedges.

 

 

This was the result yesterday.  All Rich could do when he came home to this sight at our front door was to say, "I can't talk to you right now," and he went out for a blood pressure-relieving walk.

 

But, he later came back and said he could listen...knowing rightly (from almost 29 years of marriage to me) that there probably was a story behind my hacking hurricane of our 4 ft. tall row of hedges.  And, there was. 

 

My intention was to just "trim" the hedges as he had asked me to do, a task I had done numerous times in the past.  In fact, I did just that.  But there was a problem.  In a Biblical sense:the "gardener" (us) had probably not done adequate prunning work on a regular basis.  In a meterological sense: last winter's freeze had taken a hidden toll on the hedges.  In a homeowners' sense (us again): perhaps they were not getting enough water since our drip system has been in need of repair.  But, regardless of the deeper cause, the symptom was that the more I "trimmed" the more I realized I was trimming off the only healthy looking stuff there was on the very outside ends of the plants.  Everything underneath that meager leafy facade, was brown, dusty and dying.  One thing led to another...and...well...D-Day for the hedges.

 

It's a good lesson for why it's important to tend to the stuff under the surface.  This pile of "trimmings" is probably a good metaphor for the usefulness of sabbaticals, professional or personal.  So many of our days are spent consumed and distracted with the surface demands, that we don't always look deeper. 

 

I've given myself this time of unemployment to look deeper, to try to gain some perspective and understanding of what has been growing a little dry and dusty and even dying under the surface of my life. When I look at the pile of stuff from our hedges, it's a bit obvious that untended underneath stuff can't help but affect us!  Jesus tells us a number of times the importance of pruning.  My body tells me after such a workout, that there have been muscles I've been neglecting and that I better keep moving and using or they too will fester away underneath the surface of things. 

 

Such a trimming also provides some opportunities for faith: 1. faith that indeed healthy growth will find the freedom and energy and sunlight to sprout anew from the stumps, and 2. faith that I didn't miss the new schedule of green bulk garbage pick up for our neighborhood this week (the next one won't be until October...!)