For Better Shape or More Fruitful Growth

Prune

verb

pruned; pruning

transitive verb

1a : to reduce especially by eliminating superfluous matter

• pruned the text

• prune the budget

b : to remove as superfluous

• prune away all ornamentation

2: to cut off or cut back parts of for better shape or more fruitful growth

• prune the branches

intransitive verb

: to cut away what is unwanted or superfluous

 

 

Gardeners know that some plants need to be pruned or cropped periodically for best results. Tomatoes are likely the reason I became a gardener in the first place, and they definitely benefit from pruning the “sucker” branches. The suckers are the smaller shoots that grow out of secondary joints on the plant - ones that don’t produce blooms. Eliminating the sucker shoots allows the plant to spend more of its energy producing, growing, and ripening fruits. Stronger healthier plants can be the result.

 

I am currently wanting to lose a fair amount of weight. It occurred to me as I was pruning tomatoes yesterday that losing weight works a bit like pruning. A stronger healthier body can be got in part by maintaining a better body weight than I currently possess.

 

I suspect a stronger healthier mind can also be got in part by “pruning” of the body. And what if pruning of the mind can happen? I suppose this could look like unloading pieces of life that stress or weigh down the mind. Maybe there can be a purposeful pruning of the mind if a person decides exactly what thoughts they are and are not willing to give time to?

 

While we’re at it... maybe pruning a home is just as important? Our small family of just two adults has accumulated a lot of stuff with a combined lifetime of over 90 years! It is high time for us to do some pruning here at Prune Ridge.

 

 

The photos here are my 4 tomato plants before and after yesterday’s pruning adventure. Bring on the tomatoes, please!