Earlier this spring I pruned my one remaining plant of heather. Two others had been removed last summer by kind neighbours who noticed that the small shrubs had not survived the previous winter. “We’ll dig them out for you,” they offered, and I realized only later that meant they’d wrap a large chain around the overgrown and sorry-looking plants and pull them out with a pick-up truck.

“Wow, I had no idea!”

But my neighbours seemed to enjoy the work, and their method was quick and effective. “We only do a rough job,” they said. “We leave the cleaning up to you.”

“Gladly!” I couldn’t imagine my digging out the shrubs by hand, but I could easily manage the clean up and enjoyed that small chore in the summer sunshine.

This year I also enjoyed pruning my one remaining heather plant. As with my hydrangea, I started by removing the dead wood. Then I shaped the plant so it would edge my garden as intended, and I trimmed one end. It was actually more than a trim—I held my breath and cut the end off. Even though that end of the plant was green and growing, there was a gap between it and the rest of the plant so it stuck out oddly, and besides, that one protruding end made the plant too big for its space.

As with pruning my hydrangea, pruning my heather became a life lesson for me: sometimes I need to prune away those things that have become too much of a good thing. So I’ve been cutting back:

• I used to answer every email—including what might be spam offers to place an article on my blog to sell a product or asking me to pay to get more readers. Whether these emails are from bots or simply from people I don’t know, I no longer feel obligated to reply. I’m also not able to reply to everyone who enters one of my subscriber book draws—but I still look at every entry, and try to reply to any personal notes. Although I’m cutting back, I still love email from readers!
• I used to blog more, and I still love it—but now I also try to take a day off  for stat holidays, vacation, and sometimes just because. Knowing how full life can get for everyone, I imagine that readers can use a break too,
• I love cooking, but I also love eating out with friends, and sometimes I get takeout or have food delivered just for myself. It’s a fun treat for me that also means I can cut back on kitchen clean up.

I know others who have chosen to cut back by hiring help to clean the house or sharing childcare with a friend so each has two children one afternoon a week and another afternoon on their own. Some cut back on sleep by getting up an hour earlier. Some turn off their phones when they’re needing to concentrate on a particular project or wanting to take a nap. I’m still very much in the process of discerning where to cut and where not to, so welcome any suggestions that you might have when things seem to be too much.

Yet even at those times when we might feel overwhelmed, may we be grateful for the good things in life and receive them as good gifts from our Creator. May God grant us wise discernment as we seek to follow Jesus by his Spirit:

Come to me, all you who are struggling hard and carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest. Put on my yoke, and learn from me. I’m gentle and humble. And you will find rest for yourselves. My yoke is easy to bear, and my burden is light. —Matthew 11:28-30

Writing/Reflection Prompt: In what ways are you cutting back on a good thing? Is it healthy and life-giving to allow for new growth? Or is it perhaps a cut  that’s not so good, that you need to reconsider?

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