The garden metaphors for organizing just keep coming at me. Not that I'm really doing much gardening, although I'm thinking about it. Besides, it's raining now, so I CAN'T go out and garden...
As it is softly misting in my back yard, I can see that our little persimmon tree is beginning to leaf out. (Yes, this is California and we've been having a beautiful–and early–Spring.)
This tree is a survivor like no other. When we bought this house about 3 years ago, it was quite tall and even had some persimmons on it. But it was misshapen and a very sad thing to look at. It is near our back fence, which had a huge growth of blackberries on the other side. These things are prehistoric remnants that I know will cover the earth someday if we ever do have a cataclysmic event. They and the cockroaches will rule. But I digress....
Not only had the blackberry vines entwined themselves into this tree, but a climbing rose had also declared the persimmon its habitat. It was a tall tree, but it really only had about a fourth of its crown that it should have had. The blackberries and roses had overtaken the tree on the back side and it was only a persimmon tree in the front.
I made the heart-wrenching decision to let the gardener cut it down, thinking I would soon plant one or two redwoods in its place, to complete a row (and privacy to our yard) of three others.
Well, procrastination does have its place now and then, (don't tell anyone I said this), and the next summer, a beautiful, healthy straight shoot came out of the little stump. Since the blackberries and rose had been cut back, it now had all the light and room it needed.
It did branch and leaf out last summer, although it did not bear fruit. It is now entering its second season of its second life, and it is a (shorter) but very beautiful and symmetric tree.
My connection with this tree to organizing? Yes, I'm getting to that.
Think about the clutter you may have in your home or life. Is it choking out the life in you, creating a lopsided version of you because it overshadows who you really are? If you cut it all out, would you then be able to grow straight and tall (so to speak), basking (basquing if you are Portuguese) in the sunlight now available to you? Able to bloom and fruit to your full extent instead of just a small percentage?
Yes, keeping the "blackberries" at bay will be a constant chore, but I can keep up with it a little at a time, especially since I can see how "happy" my persimmon tree is now. And now that I can see its full beauty.
How is your persimmon tree?
Are you ready for a new season with a new life?
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