Yesterday was palm tree pruning day for me. I don't know if it's the right time or not, but every year in the week before Palm Sunday, I grab my trusty pruner. It's one of those long poles within another pole that you can make longer and longer. On the end is a curved saw and a little horseshoe-shaped area just the right size for hooking around normal sized tree branches. Then you pull on the rope that hangs from it, and a second blade slices into the limb. Sure wish I could have used that part of the tool instead of the saw. In fact I wish I had one of those electric versions of the whole thing. Sawing through those palm branches is hard work. Actually the work itself isn't all that hard. It's the angle you have to hold your neck to see what you are doing that kills me. Anyway, I chose yesterday because it was supposed to rain today.
The tree in front is not that tall yet, so it went pretty fast. I was able to drag the remnants to the street and save back two promising branches. Save for what? Ah, that part of the story comes later. I moved on to the really tall tree in the back yard. That's the one where I wish I could shimmy up the trunk with a machete in my mouth and chop away at the branches. They do it on TV, but those guys are always young. And barefoot. I couldn't do it barefoot for sure. The other problem with the one back there is that the branches are reaching to the uttermost heights and are hanging right next to the power and cable lines. That gave me more to think about and watch for. I got tangled in the cable TV lines once, but managed to extricate the saw before it cut anything. Lucky there.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that the tree is right next to the fence, so I also had to try to keep falling branches out of the neighbors. On that count I wasn't so successful, although it was only one that slipped from my grasp and fell in no-man's-land. Hope their three or four dogs don't mind. We never see the people back there.
Once I got all the branches down, I had to decide which ones had the best looking fronds. Great word – fronds. Kind of rolls off the tongue with a what-in-the-world-could-a-word-that-sounds-like-this-have-to-do-with-anything kind of sound. Once I selected a few of the best looking, greenest fronds, I set to work tearing them into strips. One of the activities at church Sunday will involve everyone having his own personal palm frond. One hundred stripped and trimmed palm fronds. What a task. But that was not all. I also needed one hundred other strips of the fronds to make palm crosses. My own crude attempt at origami, learned from my mother, and attributed to a long-lost past in the Episcopalian realm. The crosses are actually easy and fun to make, and the people at Seaside seem to have enjoyed receiving them over the years.
About halfway through the stripping process I heard a distant sound. The dogs heard it too, and started barking. The sky grew darker and darker. Drops of rain began to fall. Chris came out and asked if I was going to stay out in the lightning. But I was determined to finish. The rains came. I stayed under the umbrella over the picnic table until the strips were all done, then gave in and finished the cross-making part of the project inside. So much for rain today, I guess. That means I'll have to drag the wet remnants to the street later on.
1 Peter 1:13 says, "Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed."
Father, use this pile of discarded greenery to remind people that our task is to praise you. Amen.
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