Apple Season
It’s the time of year when we start watching our apple trees. Are they ready to harvest?
This year is not going to yield much, because we did not prune the blossoms in the spring.
Apple blossoms come in clusters, and if you want good apples, each cluster should be reduced to the one center flower. This will allow the tree to produce large, flavorful, beautiful fruit. But pruning is tedious and requires some fortitude and foresight. Plucking so many pretty flowers can feel wasteful, destructive, or harsh.
Now, we have lots of little, sickly apples.
The tree’s energies were divided up among too many fruits and none got enough.
The apples are crowded together, without room to grow, and bugs, disease, and moisture hid in between to spoil them.
In the years we prune, we get fewer apples, but they are big and delicious.
Choosing to keep one blossom from each cluster, means the tree has more energy and nutrients for it, while space on the branch gives it room to grow and flourish.
We also are at our best when our energies are selectively and deliberately directed.
If we keep expanding in any area—home, work, school, hobbies, social life, etc.—at some point we will be overloaded.
The trick is not to cram in as much as possible, nor to eliminate as much as possible.
The secret is to figure out the sweet spot of just enough.
Tell me:
What areas of your life are crammed too full right now?
What would pruning free up for you?
What would you most like to see flourishing?
