December 11

Gardening teaches us to choose, if we'll take the lessons of the garden and apply them to our lives. We choose the plants that will do well in our gardens. We choose flowers and species that will feed the bees and other pollinators. We choose grasses and undergrowth to provide a safe space for nature to take shelter. We choose where to locate plants. And each season, we compost annuals. Maintenance calls us to cut back the roses and other bushes and shrubs. We do so to keep them healthy and so that they will grow to be more beautiful.

The lesson of pruning is also needed in our lives.

Like our gardens, which may take on more and more plants until, instead of being a beautiful space, it becomes overgrown, many of us take on new responsibilities, cram in more activities, and keep adding. Our bed times get pushed back an hour. We wake up earlier. We take on that additional responsibility, or job. We are addicted to our phones.

We add that next app, or smart appliance. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells the crowd to make a choice about how to lead their lives. " And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee," he says. I'm not advocating mass maiming. But the advice, by being extreme, tells us to see the wood for the trees. We live in a world in which algorithms are being honed with massive amounts of user data to glean insights into how apps can be more and more addictive. To keep us scrolling. To keep us clicking. Take the lesson of pruning to your phone. Do you really need that news app? Or Facebook? Do you need that quickening of the pulse, or sense of dread when you hear an email notification at night. How much time are you really spending staring at that small screen? How much time are you wasting, levelling up in that game you play too often. How much time would you recover, to spend with your family if you weren't obsessed with your phone or other electronic devices?

Apps have become the crack cocaine of the 21st Century. Make no mistake, you will feel at a loss at first when you do a digital detox. When you pluck out the apps that offend you and cast them aside. But it is not enough to uninstall them. That is a knee-jerk. You must have a clear idea of what you want that rose bush to look like before you start pruning. What your goals are. More air circulation; optimal shaping for light; cutting away dead branches. So too, your phone. How will simplifying your life improve it? Will you take the time to get more sleep and feel more rested? Do you understand how that restedness may impact your health and relationships? How will you use those unconscious minutes when you turn to your phone and check your Twitter feed? What may your day look like with fewer distractions? When you can see what is beautiful to be able to work on the ugly?

Do not fear the negative space. The single tall rock in a Zen garden is striking and beautiful because it is so solitary. If all you truly need from your phone is to be able to take a picture, use it for calls, check your bank statement, and send and receive the occasional text, then pick up your pruning shears. Like your rose bushes, your daily routine will be opened up and become more beautiful.