Pruning

Pruning not only encourages new growth, but helps you make better sense of what you've already got.  After a winter next to an overactive radiator and struggling for sips of meager sunlight, my houseplants needed some help.  Not everyone agrees with how far I've cut back this jasmine.  It's a leap of faith that cutting off the long, scraggly vines will yield dense new ones, much less a bunch of flowers.  One year, on the advice of my mother-in-law, I pulled every leaf from the vines.  They did grow back, along with the promised flowers, but the month spent looking at the skeleton in my living room was a bit too bleak.  This year, as I did last, I cut it back until it was ugly, but not too ugly.  A fine line that each of us draws in a different place.

Pruning the rafus palm was not so complex.  After taking off a handful of dying branches, it immediately looked healthier with a more vertical profile that suits our loft ceiling.  Encouraged by these efforts to move beyond the winter gloom, I've started tackling closets and overflowing toy chests, and scheduling lunches with old friends.  Pruning back winter, and making room for spring.

Look down.  Spring is here.