Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Pruning

Photo courtesy of bakersfield.com
I had dinner tonight with my lovely friend, Mary, the most gracious person I have ever known. It was a pre-birthday dinner (because I will be working on my actual birthday this weekend).

We ate in the Arcata restaurant, 3 Foods, eating a delicious dinner in a style described as "Asian fusion," serenaded by exquisite live piano music.

I had a glass of pinot grigio and #63 Dungeness crab flautas with cactus salsa and creme fraiche. For dessert we had dates with chevre. When you order coffee, it you get your own personal French press.

It was fancy but quite modestly priced. I recommend it.

Mary's special gift is the ability to frame everything into a positive, proactive light (to mix a few metaphors). She joyfully embraces new people, new places and new experiences. She loves her life, her husband, her family, friends and work. She's been my friend for 14 years and has been an inspiration to me all this time.

She looked at all this trimming back and downsizing I've been doing lately and gave it a name: pruning.

According to Wikipedia, bless its heart, pruning is "a technique employed by gardeners to control growth, remove dead or diseased wood or stimulate the formation of flowers and fruit."

A haircut. Truckloads of extraneous crap to the dump or donation barrels. It's all just pruning. Flowers and fruit to follow.
Flowers and fruit by Renoir, courtesy of awesome-art.biz

4 comments:

Kym said...

I'm looking forward to the harvest of your hard work pruning.

Indie said...

Thanks, Kym. Me too.

steviewren said...

I've just finished catching up on the last couple of posts. I'm glad your feeling better. I'm glad that pesky gray is less noticeable. I'm glad the sun is shining. I'm glad you've pruned out the dead wood from your life. I'm hoping you are happy you are going to be a grandmother. You've had a lot of changes recently. It sounds like they've been for the better.

Indie said...

Thanks, Steviewren. It feels good to get a few things accomplished finally. I have been sort of stuck but hopefully am pulling out of it.

Part of me is excited about it, part of me is as frightened as my own child is about it. When he feels better, so will I.