In the aftermath of the canyon fire, the county set up dumpsters in our community to encourage homeowners to clear their property of debris and undergrowth which can ignite and fuel damaging fires under the right conditions.  We were talking with the neighbors about just how MUCH crud there is to clear out once you start to dig – stuff we lived with pretty obliviously. It is a such a self-discipline thing to get out there and roll up your sleeves especially when you aren't actually finishing a thing but rather just keeping a little bit ahead of the game. 

This may be one of the biggest revelations of adulting for me – just how much pruning and weeding all of life requires.  I have always been more focused on planning and envisioning, planting and harvesting. Reality is those are brief lovely beginning and endings.  Celebratory.  The real meat of any project is the maintaining. It's not terribly glam, no matter what you are maintaining.  

We won't finish this job this year but we have hauled off a lot of weeds and brush and broken branches. It's much better than when we started. I'm trusting that steady effort is cumulative.  I am looking around at what else could use some digging out. One project here and there.  Garbage hauled out is always an improvement.