The Tree Limb Dream

Last week I had a dream that it was time to go prune the apple trees out back. In fact, winter is a good time to prune fruit trees because, well, as far as I know, because there are no leaves or fruits to get in the way, and you can better see where the excess branches are that need to be pruned. OK, so in the dream, I intended to prune the apple trees, but ended up at the tree behind my parents house (which, also in fact, they do plan on chopping down, I believe).

Here I was, girl-size chainsaw in hand, recalling the advice to chop off any branch which didn't have fruit on it still. You know how in winter, some apple trees still have apples clinging to their branches? Dead and rotten apples, admittedly, but existing fruit, nonetheless. This was the case in the dream. I looked up into the bare tree and saw an occasional apple, then started cutting away at the branches that had no fruit. I kept cutting and cutting, surprised at how many branches were not fruit-bearing.

At one point, I decided to cut closer to the trunk, and when I did, I discovered a little nest of strange bugs. I knew these bugs would be the ruin of the tree because they were right at the heart of it. I also knew I had to cut them out as well. I started that process, quickly discovering the "Queen"... a bug so large it had wrapped its mouth and body around a soda can, which was being digested by the bug - whole, and unopened. I started hacking that thing in half, and into pieces, and swiping at the other little bugs, getting them all out of the nest, into the snow.

Even as I was having the dream, I was aware of the necessity of eliminating the fruitless endeavors in life, of getting rid of the excess "sucker" branches that sap the core. If the suckers are allowed to thrive, they will drain the tree of the life-giving nutrients... the stuff needed to make the fruit as strong and big as possible. When we cut away the suckers, the tree concentrates its efforts on growing the fruit.

As I reflect in waking life, I see several obvious connections: the tree represents me, the branches represent my efforts in this life, the fruit represents what I have to show as a result of my efforts. The pruning is a need to cut away the excess which is a result of the labor I have done in vain, producing nothing beneficial. Indeed, I have become more aware of this in my life, so it is no surprise I would be mulling this stuff over in my head... thoughts which have led to dreams as I attempt to make sense of my life.

What did come as a surprise, though, was those nasty bugs at the heart of the matter. If I had not been working to eliminate what I recognized as a problem (what I thought to be the only problem, those fruitless, life-sucking branches), I would not have discovered the real, core issue. While the useless branches would not have hurt the tree, the bugs eventually would have killed it from the inside out.