When I was growing up, my sister and I would go to stay with my aunt, uncle and cousins for about a week.  It was usually right at the end of the school year for all of the kids and we were ready for a break! My mom and dad were probably ready for a break from of us, as well. The two of us would throw some clothes in a bag and my mom would drive us about an hour away to one of the best places to be for kids.

My aunt and uncle lived in the middle of their fruit orchard on a mountain in a town where my mom grew up.  Payson is one of the places I remember all of my life. Staying with this aunt and uncle on this mountain at this time of year became on of things I would look forward to for many reasons. While we were there for this week, we played in the campers, ran through the fruit trees, we played music too loud and then were told to turn it down, we swam in the town swimming pool after the work was done, we went to the movies in town at night, we ate until our bellies were full and then found more to eat. We loved it. I loved it. It was a time to do something different and there was never enough time to do everything we wanted to do.

And we learned to work along with our cousins.  And work some more.  There is more work to do that I could imagine.  House chores and chores with the orchard.  My sister and I were from the city.  We knew how to work and then we learned new ways to work. Like how to help move irrigation pipes as best as we could. And then we learned how to thin fruit, especially the peaches. One tree and one branch at a time.

Why do you thin fruit?

Thinning fruit on an orchard that covers who knows how many acres (millions, or so that’s how many it felt like to a kid!) still has to be done one tree and one branch at a time.  Here is what I remember this many decades later.

You thinned fruit so that the fruit left on the tree would get bigger.  If all of it was left on the tree, then there would not be room enough for it to grow to what it was supposed to become, the branches would break and the tree would not be able to support the fruit.  Thinning the fruit kept the tree strong and produced bigger better fruit.  Okay. That makes sense.  But every branch?  Every branch.

So we began.  I remember being s.l.o.w. at first. Being concerned that I was taking off the wrong fruit.  Then, I was counting how many peaches were left.  What if I took too many off the tree?  What if those little pieces of fruit could have been the best fruit ever and I just plucked them off the tree! Oh, the drama! Little girls. Goodness.

I was also taking off the fruit in a way that the little pieces popped in my eyes, so I had to then get those pieces out of my eyes.  Do you see how much help I was?  Not very much, actually.  And yet, my cousins and my uncle did not send me back to the house.  They may have wanted to but they had me stick to it and they taught me to work in this new way. I was a young child and learning.  They had been doing this for years and knew the tricks. I got better over the years, faster, and maybe less concerned about the fruit that dropped. I began to understand about keeping the tree strong.  The branches were lighter and looked better when we were done.

I now live in a home where we have many fruit trees, including peach trees.  I have thinned my fruit trees every year for almost 10 years.  I think of what I learned with my sister, aunt, uncle and cousins those many decades ago. I think of what thinning fruit does for the tree, for the fruit we get at the end. Keeping the tree strong is important.

I think of this when I want to hold onto things, keep things clustered tight to me, and when I feel the weight it can cause or pull at the strength in me.

I remember. It is good to thin things out. Feel the breath come a little lighter for this moment.

Breathe, my friends, and find your strong.