Pruning

The first time I heard this word is when I was 7, I think, when my dad had this grape yard at the back of our house. Everyday, after his morning jog, he would cultivate the soil and weed out unwanted growths around the grapes. Once a month or sometime around its cycle, my dad would prune the branches and I asked him why he had to do that. He told me it’s necessary to prune/trim the branches so it grows so much better after. After the pruning, I would see that the grape vines would be almost bare then after 2 weeks or so, they’d grow to be become more vibrant, ready to bear green or light violet grapes. I always loved the time of harvest because I could have as many grapes as I would like!

As I grew up, I also learned how to prune my life. I would cut off mental branches or take out physical and emotional stuff to become a better person. It started when I read this Archie Digest where it had Betty complaining about having so much stuff in her closet and not enough space. So Veronica helped her out by segregating the stuff into useful and not-useful. Betty insisted they are memorabilias, but Veronica said they are baggages. I looked at my own closet and realized I still had stuff from 1st grade, and I was already in my 1st year in high school then. I had to let go of my kiddie panties, my grade school projects, the things I shared with random people. I got it from my Lola to keep stuff from the past years. So I pruned my closet, let go of those memorabilia and kept the memory in my brain. I felt lighter after, so much lighter and I was ready to take on new adventures again.

Now that I am older, I am not bothered anymore by keeping stuff as I now know what’s worth keeping and what’s not. I am slowly pruning out the not-so-good things in life. I’ve recently taken on a healthy diet consisting mainly of fish, veggies and fruits and saying no to pork, beef and chicken. But if there’s really nothing else, I’d opt for chicken. Of course, I still indulge myself in chocolates and ice cream. I just can’t get enough of them! I must admit that I frequently indulge in the decadence of those pleasure items and it clearly shows in my figure. Hehehe. As much as I wish to be model thin, I am a real person with bigger than reality cravings for sweets and I can’t really give up those for a body I can’t enjoy as much as I would enjoy a bar of chocolate or a scoop of ice cream. 

To the more serious stuff, I have decided to stop all the toxicity. This is one thing that I need to seriously prune out because it’s getting the sorrows back in line and that’s the last thing I need since I’ve taken on a new mental and psychological state just last week. And only recently, I was disappointed to experience such lowly thing because of the toxicity. I guess it was a wake up call for me, since I initially thought I would be able to go through this because I was confident already to handle myself. I am getting that out of my system now, choose better people to hang out with, screen friends, and enjoy life to the fullest without worries by being the best of what I can be everyday. 

Soon, I will take time to meditate and think about what I can do to help the people around me. It is in helping others that gives us great joy because it also helps us in a way that we transcend through our selfish desires and come to the higher plane of living life. :-)