Pruning

As I write this it is winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. It’s been dark and rainy here in Northern California. As a break in the heavy rain appears I take the opportunity to go outside to prune my rose and hydrangea bushes. There was a lot of growth this summer and so a lot of errant and past their prime branches need to be cut back in order for there to be a healthy harvest of flowers in the year to come.

As you receive this you are likely preparing for the new year in your own way. At this time of darkness, mystery, magic and new beginnings, some of you may be contemplating what you can do during these dark times we live in to help heal our troubled world. Is there a way to bring more wholesomeness and kindness at a time when leaders sow divisiveness to obtain power convincing left and right to dance to their tunes like puppets on a string?

At the end of the year I like to reflect and release, prune and reset- try, imperfectly, once again to do what I can and let go of that which does not bear fruit or bring light. It’s clear that my goals in 2024 kind of got away from me. They got so big-electing the first woman president and getting our feet on, what I thought was, the right path, and I got my ass handed to me by the results at each turn. Once again I am clueless. Thankfully, my Zen practice advocates for a state of cluelessness and brings me back again and again to simply not knowing. It reminds me that each moment is a microcosm, that nothing is ever lost, that we are all too deep in it to clearly see the pattern of life as it unfolds.

We think we need to be doing large things, moving mountains from the top down, and tend to take the small moments of our life for granted. We forget about the power and beauty of working from the ground up- looking the woman who checks out our groceries in the eye and smiling, bringing a bowl of soup to a sick friend. I can’t end hunger but I can help feed the people who are hungry in my community and send money to World Central Kitchen to support those with global capacity. These small moments are the pearls that adorn the garments of our lives.

So as this year ends and the new one begins I release the need for grandiose plans to change the world and recommit to the small stuff, to meditating in the morning, to pruning the bushes, to bringing new year’s gifts to my neighbors, to launching my book, to doing what I can for my community and supporting those who are called to bigger dreams. With ease and confidence, doing what is in front of me to do with as much love and attention as I can muster, one foot in front of another.