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...!)