Tu B'Shvat is the Jewish "Birthday" for trees. No, January/early February is not when all trees are born, but it's considered the start of the growing season. Even though it's cold and dark, growth is beginning under the surface.
Sometimes I'm irritated that God gave Man dominion over all the earth. It's just a whole lot of extra work! Look, I was put here with certain abilities, and people pretty much expect me to use what I have learned to produce an expected outcome. Seeds are produced to replicate their mother plant. All they have to do is GROW! But plants are too silly to perform their ONE function correctly!
Every year I have to prune the trees. Apparently they can tell each other about a beetle infestation, but they can't intuit that if they grow more branches on one side than the other, eventually they'll fall over and die. Way to go, trees.
This also means that every year I have to reminisce about an old boyfriend. He was an arborist. Many people work for tree trimming companies. It's not the same thing. This guy is a certified arborist with a deep love of trees, and I learned a lot from him. Though the relationship was a disaster, I'm grateful to him every year when I pick up the clippers. By no stretch of the imagination am I an expert, but I do have the ability to remove redundancies, reduce weight loads, and in all other ways promote each tree's best growth. (Except for apple trees. I'm not sure how to prune them, so I don't...and they show it.)
It's astounding how hard trees try to grow the WRONG directions!!! Not one, but seven new shoots on a maple branch, all vying to grow straight up through existing branches! Four leaders I missed last year in a single Bartlett pear - branches 6 feet long without a leaf on them! Every branch lower than 6 feet must go, Redbud, and please curtail new growth overhanging the gutter! Not to mention the army of saplings at the base of every tree. Thank you for trying. Your effort has not gone unnoticed. Many will enter, few will win.
I feel I ought to make a moral point, so:
I'm a lot like a tree. I've been transplanted a few times, I'm slow to mature and come to fruition, but I'm worth the effort. Apparently God feels I need copious amounts of pruning and refining...but that's probably because I can't seem to pick a few good directions in which to develop. I'm human, and life is full of marvelous things. I send out shoots in many directions, expecting to be able to blossom in all. I do a lot of growing in the dark, when no one is watching me, and erupt in violent displays of epiphany - sometimes beautiful and usually messy. I like to know where I stand, and once I do, I can't be moved. I am (I hope) a source of shelter, creativity, sustenance, and wonderment for those I love. I am unique. And, like the trees, I have a birthday every y
Sometimes I'm irritated that God gave Man dominion over all the earth. It's just a whole lot of extra work! Look, I was put here with certain abilities, and people pretty much expect me to use what I have learned to produce an expected outcome. Seeds are produced to replicate their mother plant. All they have to do is GROW! But plants are too silly to perform their ONE function correctly!
Every year I have to prune the trees. Apparently they can tell each other about a beetle infestation, but they can't intuit that if they grow more branches on one side than the other, eventually they'll fall over and die. Way to go, trees.
This also means that every year I have to reminisce about an old boyfriend. He was an arborist. Many people work for tree trimming companies. It's not the same thing. This guy is a certified arborist with a deep love of trees, and I learned a lot from him. Though the relationship was a disaster, I'm grateful to him every year when I pick up the clippers. By no stretch of the imagination am I an expert, but I do have the ability to remove redundancies, reduce weight loads, and in all other ways promote each tree's best growth. (Except for apple trees. I'm not sure how to prune them, so I don't...and they show it.)
It's astounding how hard trees try to grow the WRONG directions!!! Not one, but seven new shoots on a maple branch, all vying to grow straight up through existing branches! Four leaders I missed last year in a single Bartlett pear - branches 6 feet long without a leaf on them! Every branch lower than 6 feet must go, Redbud, and please curtail new growth overhanging the gutter! Not to mention the army of saplings at the base of every tree. Thank you for trying. Your effort has not gone unnoticed. Many will enter, few will win.
I feel I ought to make a moral point, so:
I'm a lot like a tree. I've been transplanted a few times, I'm slow to mature and come to fruition, but I'm worth the effort. Apparently God feels I need copious amounts of pruning and refining...but that's probably because I can't seem to pick a few good directions in which to develop. I'm human, and life is full of marvelous things. I send out shoots in many directions, expecting to be able to blossom in all. I do a lot of growing in the dark, when no one is watching me, and erupt in violent displays of epiphany - sometimes beautiful and usually messy. I like to know where I stand, and once I do, I can't be moved. I am (I hope) a source of shelter, creativity, sustenance, and wonderment for those I love. I am unique. And, like the trees, I have a birthday every y
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