Pruning Back Before the Wind Storms

Just like a tree with heavy, long branches is in serious danger of losing those branches and risking the whole tree when severe wind storms come, so are we susceptible of heading down unhealthy roads if we don’t prune away the other perhaps worthwhile but not best fit uses of our time and attention. If we can do that sometimes painful but necessary work we can be in a better place to do what matters most to us. And when the winds of stress or fear or pain hit us, we’ll be better able to withstand it because our lives will be more focused and grounded.

This morning I was enjoying some sunshine out on my balcony when I was surprised by seeing a tree pruner cut a large branch from a city street tree at my eye level on the third story of my condominium complex. After getting over the initial surprise—lets face it, I don’t often have visitors at my third story balcony—I jumped to the railing to watch.

A man was using a very impressive long reach pruner to trim the trees around downtown. Many of the branches were pretty significant and were easily a couple of inches in diameter. It made me feel a little sad to see those branches that had so nicely provide shade and such a wonderful ambiance in hearing the slight rustling of wind between the leaves. But then I remembered growing up where major wind events were common.

I grew up in an area of Utah right between two major canyons, and those canyons act like huge wind tunnels to funnel and focus wind velocity. Especially in early spring, sometimes the wind would whip through those canyons at EF 1 level tornado speeds. In fact, I remember walking to school a couple of days where I’d lean into the wind and be held in place against my whole body weight.

My family lived in a well established neighborhood with many large trees that had been growing for several decades. I remember swinging on swings hung by many of the branches of those great old trees and climbing them during the summer to spend hours reading in a favorite spot up a maple tree near our house.

We never really think of those massive trees being impacted by the wind. Their roots go down so deep and we assume that a tree that’s survived for 60 years must have the ability to withstand wind storms since surely they’ve seen worse wind events than the ones I grew up dealing with. So it was a huge surprise when I walked out to our front yard one morning after a night wind storm to see that the enormous birch tree at a neighbor’s house had lost it’s most significant branch, leaving a gape wound that was oozing sticky fluids.

The neighbors hired an arborist to take a look to see if they could save the tree, but ultimately it was determined that the wound was just to big and that the tree would be too much of a risk to the house because they were quite certain that the tree would be much more susceptible to disease and insects that would weaken the tree even more and maybe blow over onto the house.

Even now, probably 20 years afterward, that spot of the neighbor’s yard where that majestic tree used to stand still seems sadly empty to me. But why do we prune trees back? Right after a tree has received a thorough pruning, it tends to look awkward at best and sometimes flat out ugly for a few months. It runs counter to our primary goals generally in planting trees in the first place. We typically plant trees in the hopes that they will grow strong and tall and provide a lot of great shade or fruit. We typically don’t plant trees to thwart their potential growth or make them look less pretty on purpose.

But isn’t that exactly what we need to do to remain healthy and strong ourselves as people? There are so many demands of our time and attention. A lot of which are really worthwhile things that might matter a lot to us: like that branch that I used to swing my leg around to climb up to that favorite reading spot up the tree. It can be so painful to prune back those activities or organizations or people or uses of our time and attention. But here’s the thing about pruning trees: they end up being healthier and stronger after a proper pruning and a pruned tree is much more likely to survive the severe wind storms.

I’m so guilty of focusing on growing out those branches as thick and as fast as possible myself. I have a really hard time saying no to opportunities. But just like a tree with heavy, long branches is in serious danger of losing those branches and risking the whole tree when the winds come, so are we susceptible of heading down unhealthy roads if we don’t decide what matters most to us and focus on the most meaningful activities and uses of our times and attention and prune away the other worthwhile but not best fits. If we can do that sometimes painful but necessary work, it seems to me we will become stronger and healthier and also be in a better situation to do what matters most to us. And when the winds of stress or fear or pain hit us, we’ll be better able to withstand it because our lives will be more focused and grounded.