The Human Prisons: Winter and Addiction

There is something in the light this late in winter that causes you to question how alone you have been in the last few months. It has been cold for sometime. We have seen the snow come down and pile up. The children do not jump to the window when the flakes are dropping. Nothing will move them from their catatonic state in front of the television except perhaps for a flower sprout. No, we are stuck in it; the closest thing humans have to prison; the deep, dark night of winter.

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How To Prune A Chinese Elm Bonsai Tree

Before PruningIt's good to have hobbies, especially those that require one to slow down and think. For me, the hobby of keeping one lone Chinese Elm Bonsai tree helps me to work on the virtues most neglected in my life, silence, patience, long term diligence, and awareness. With the recent stress of balancing holiday shopping, work, graduate school, housekeeping, and a dozen other things, I had been remiss in my practice of these good qualities. And I would still be blinded to my lapses had nature not been there to remind me. Outside my window, snow dropped at a rapid pace of one to three inches an hour, and on the window sill, working at an exponentially slower pace, my bonsai was growing out of control. The wintry weather forced me to physically stay inside, but the tiny tree impelled a deeper, mental stillness.

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