The Lesson of the Raspberry Patch

Last summer my raspberries yielded a plentiful crop of fat, tasty berries. We have a 20 foot long bed that runs along our rear property line and a solid timber fence separating us from our neighbor’s horse farm. Yesterday, we were the beneficiaries of a 50 degree weather day in Rochester in January, with almost no snow on the ground. This was the rare gift of a day I needed if I was going to do the number one thing to assure that I will have another bountiful crop this coming summer – an opportunity to cut out about a third of the bramble that delivered us last year’s crop. The work of cutting out one third of the canes is not physically hard, but I mentally battle the notion that I may be cutting too much back, and as a result the crop yield may be reduced. Yet every winter that conduct the pruning diligently, the raspberry crop comes back strong. When I don’t cut away the woody canes, they sprout shoots that are very brittle. When I don’t trim the tops of the healthy young canes, they either overgrow the fenced enclosure and fall onto the lawn or choke out the other raspberry plants. When I don’t prune to the ground the canes that are growing through the fence, they make lawn mowing alongside them torture. The lesson of the raspberry patch is that a pruned raspberry patch is a healthier, more productive raspberry patch. This process was a reminder to me of what pruning needs to happen at the beginning of this New Year in my own life. It started financially with me when I began to look carefully at some of my monthly expenses and noticed that I was not getting much for what I was paying for. I realized that I was either buying a service that cost more than it was worth, or I was not using a service enough for it to really be worth it for me. So without too much pain, I cut $500 out of my annual budget and am now looking at some other expenses and asking the same questions. With the loss of those expenses comes the gain of time too. More time to spend with loved ones, or doing something to help others, or to write instead of reviewing and paying bills, or calling the vendor to dispute a charge. Trimming raspberry plants and budgets is still some distance from my heart. What if I choose to also trim away worry, to place more of my problems in God’s mighty hands, and to instead spend time enjoying Him for who He is? I suspect that I would be trading away worries for joy, burdens for blessings and anxiety for peace. This is a tougher task than trimming raspberry plants and my less than necessary expenses. I know I will have some setbacks, but I’ll soon look out my window at the raspberry plants, and later the raspberries that will bless our summer dinners and breakfasts, and I’ll remember the lesson of the raspberry patch.