One of my favorite books is David Masumoto’s, An Epitaph for a Peach. It is far more than a story about farming, his special variety of peach, and the four seasons. He spends a great deal of time discussing how to prune a peach tree, teaching how it must be done in just the right way and just at the right time for his trees to blossom and produce the perfect peach.
As we approach lent the concept of pruning comes to mind. Lent is much like pruning a tree or bush. The practice entails targeted removal of diseased, damaged, dead, non-productive, structurally unsound, or otherwise unwanted parts of trees and plants.
I am certainly no expert at pruning, but from talking to master gardener friends and reading David’s book I understand that pruning is an art that must be practiced and requires patience, skill, and most importantly love.
The Lenten season is a time when we engage in the pruning of our souls and bodies. Through prayer and meditation we remove all the layers of worldly issues that separate us from God. Through fasting we remove the foreign substances that interfere with our physical health, and through service to others we shape the person we are called to be.
Not all of us can be farmers like David, or master gardeners like my friend Joanne, but we can all safely become individuals who learn to prune our bodies, minds, and souls during this Lenten season.
Leave a Reply +