Pruning Trees

This weekend Sean and I decided to prune the lilacs.  When we moved into our house almost 3 years ago we were thrilled to finally have grass (not the decorative rocks that covered every inch of our old yard), shade trees (not little twigs reluctantly peeking over the tops of cut up coffee tins, cursing us for planting them in the hateful climate of Laramie, Wyoming) and lilacs (Sean's all-time most prized tree). Because we loved our greenery we have been very cautious about cutting or thinning it...and what is left is a lot of overgrown foliage.  So armed with a hand saw (obviously Sean) and some awesome tree pruners (obviously me) we got to work.  The first couple of branches stung the heart just a little especially when I saw the branches hit the ground, purple flowers breaking off in protest.  Ugh!  Why are we doing this?  But then I looked up and noticed that I could see a peek of blue sky in the upper branches and I felt a little better.  Still frowning a bit I set to work on the lower branches.  As I squeezed the handles of the pruners I felt a little guilty at how much I liked the feel of the branch snipping loose.  I felt like a total jerk.  Poor tree!  All that hard work growing that branch and I just swoop in and kill it.  But, guilty pleasures are hard to resist and soon I was snipping and thrashing that tree into a pruned delight.  I stepped back to admire my work and I realized that not only was I smiling, Sean and I had held a conversation.  About us and things that interest us.  Not about work.  Not about the baby (love you Evan!).  Not about the cat that despite $300 in vet bills is still peeing where she's not supposed to.  A conversation and a project that was about us.  It hit me like a ton of bricks when I found myself saying to Sean, "I feel a bit like an overgrown lilac tree lately."  I tried to pull the words back but alas! they were gone.  Great.  Now I had to explain myself.  Well...I feel like I've been going and going and going, producing lots of branches but they're all fighting each other for space.  I didn't really realize that I couldn't see the sky until right now.  Well...no, I don't want to cut any of them down because they all have something to offer and I'm not sure which branch is the most important one yet so I want them to just be there when I need them.  Yes, I know that many of those branches can't bloom because they're too packed in.  Yeah...I know that a healthy tree doesn't have spindly branches, no flowers and a ton of suckers growing at the base.  Yeah...you're right...it would be better to pick a few branches and focus on flowers.

I guess it's hard when you're a busy little lilac tree shouldering the weight of the new owners who finally have trees instead of rocks.  People are so glad to see green leaves and new branches that they really don't step back and realize they can't see the sky.  The lilac keeps plugging along, because that's what lilacs do, but healthy growth requires more than growth in all directions.  Sometimes you have to prune your losses and lose a couple of flowers for the sake of a tree that's worth looking at.