Pruning the Pine

As spring approaches, the gardening centers begin to buzz with people preparing beds for new blooms, trees, herbs, etc. Buying fertilizer, plants, tools,etc. Its an amazing transition from a cold harsh seemingly long winter to a beautiful spring. Every creature seems to feel it and even though it repeats every year, it doesnt get any less exciting or dull. On such a morning I decided to try and give my dying 20 yr old Pine tree bonsai a last shot. It has dried up and looks a pale brown with a slight tinge of dark green at one end. Most of the branches have dried and it makes me feel sad that I couldnt get the pulse of the tree. It has an amazing structure and for something as strong as that, I hope to revive it even if it has an ounce of life in it. I learnt that if I loosened the soil at the roots and pruned the dead roots off, put in new soil, it might help the tree to become healthy again. Struggling to see any signs of life in the tree, I began loosening the dirt. The root system is amazing, a tree is as intricate under the soil as it is above it. Although it isnt as colorful, mostly black and brown and white here and there, it still has this system of roots branching out as far and deep as it can go to gather moisture and nutrients in the most efficient manner. I noticed many roots were dried up or dead, I began pruning those. It is so important to prune the dead portions off to promote the growth of new roots or even branches, stems, leaves on the top, it is almost essential for growth. Isnt this so applicable to our current society. A system is established which is considered efficient and it remains till some portions of it begin to die. At some point one has to understand why those systems dont apply anymore and they need to be pruned. Need to be removed to promote further development or growth. Otherwise we end up with a stagnant society which will eventually die out at some point, cause it refused to look back and re-evaluate and prune.
All that from the pruning of a pine tree. Hopefully I see some life and the inherent persistance of the tree kicks in.