GREENSBORO, N.C. — It's time for 'My 2 Cents.'
I found myself researching the act of pruning today. It's when a gardener removes the dead or dying parts of plants to allow room for new growth. If done correctly, it helps a plant bloom into it's natural state, protects it from damage or pests and creates a healthier plant.
It seems so counterintuitive - to cut something down to help it grow - but pruning is an important of gardening and it's also an important part of life.
As we grow there are parts of our lives that will start to slow us down. You may take a step back and see that you're growing in the wrong direction or there's a part of your life that's keeping you from moving in a healthy way. It may be that you need to prune some areas that are no longer helping you.
Those parts will be different for everyone. For some it could be a bad habit that needs to be pruned, or a person who may be holding you in place or even a job that is throwing you off.
To be clear - just because we need to prune those parts of our lives now, doesn't mean they never helped us grow. They could have been an important part of how we got to where we are, but it's time to move on. It also doesn't mean that they meant to hold us back. Just like a branch isn't trying to hurt it's tree.
But there comes a time when we have to get our shears and get to pruning. Some parts may be easy to cut off, others more difficult, but we have to remember that pruning is inevitable and necessary for us to grow.