It Must Be a Pruning Kind of Week

I hate to say it's been a rough week, but that's what it has been.
How do you decide what is rough?? Is it when you stub your toe? Or when your bank account is at zero?

It's all a little fuzzy to me! No matter how rough one thing seems, I would WAY rather look at what is going good all around me.

And it seems like there is A LOT of good around me!

But yesterday was a little too HEAVY for me. We had a lot happen. One of those days where you realize that one of the tires on your 17 year old daughters car is bare to the rim- and they are only six months old!

$265.00 ka-ching

The kind of day where your dishwasher, the one that you have been trying to baby as it has been showing signs that it is in its final days, finally bids a final adieu and has gone to appliance heaven. Wasn't there a show about that??  The Brave Little Toaster :)

$1000.00 ka-ching

The kind of day where the little red light that is supposed to look like an engine, comes back on in your Denali letting you know that the previous three times this has happened this YEAR and has equated to well over $4000.00 in repairs have NOT worked and back to the shop it goes AGAIN!

And finally the kind of day where the insurance bill went up $800.00 because of a traffic ticket your teenager got that the same ticket in every other state in the world is NOT a moving violation!

Yesterday was JUST THAT KIND OF DAY!

So today I woke up DETERMINED to not trudge through the day, but to skip merrily through the day. Nothing was going to get me down. And all that stuff from yesterday, it all works out anyway doesn't it?? And really, let's be honest, how many of us have a clear recollection of the bad days two or three years later? Really, this stuff is SO NOT WHAT LIFE IS ABOUT!

So before the day could get HOT-

it was expected to soar above 100 degrees today-

I went out to work a little bit in my yard.

I was just going to get a couple of plants in some pots.

 Well maybe I will just weed for a minute.

This feels so good, maybe I will do just a bit of clean up by the side of the house-
Hey... let's prune this rose bush!

It produces pretty flowers-

One or two per season :(
The previous owner didn't take care of the rose bushes.
I don't know anything about rose bushes,
but I do know they are supposed to be pretty
and this one is NOT so much.

I kept thinking that pruning and clipping this rose bush back would do one of two things;
It would destroy it,
or it would make it stronger!
I have pruned plants before,
and every time, I panic...
A LOT!
And every time, I am amazed at how the plant comes back bigger, better and stronger than before.

 As I pruned, I thought sometimes it hurts a little to grow a lot,

As I pruned, I thought how beautiful today is,
As I pruned I remembered how much I love being outside and feeling sunshine on my back,

As I pruned I realized that today, my hands are strong enough to use the clippers,

 and I couldn't help but to reflect on all the times I have felt pruned before.

A little bit of trial,
a little dose of being cut down
and sometimes a big dose of trimming and pruning and re-shaping....

 And as I pruned, I couldn't help but think that yesterday wasn't that bad after all.