The Currant Bush

For those of you that watched the LDS General Conference this last weekend, you will undoubtedly know what quote was my favorite!

"I was living up in Canada. I had purchased a farm. It was run-down. I went out one morning and saw a currant bush. It had grown up over six feet high. It was going all to wood. There were no blossoms and no currants. I was raised on a fruit farm in Salt Lake before we went to Canada, and I knew what ought to happen to that currant bush. So I got some pruning shears and went after it, and I cut it down, and pruned it, and clipped it back until there was nothing left but a little clump of stumps. It was just coming daylight, and I thought I saw on top of each of these little stumps what appeared to be a tear, and I thought the currant bush was crying. I was kind of simpleminded (and I haven’t entirely gotten over it), and I looked at it, and smiled, and said, “What are you crying about?” You know, I thought I heard that currant bush talk. And I thought I heard it say this: “How could you do this to me? I was making such wonderful growth. I was almost as big as the shade tree and the fruit tree that are inside the fence, and now you have cut me down. Every plant in the garden will look down on me, because I didn’t make what I should have made. How could you do this to me? I thought you were the gardener here.” That’s what I thought I heard the currant bush say, and I thought it so much that I answered. I said, “Look, little currant bush, I am the gardener here, and I know what I want you to be. I didn’t intend you to be a fruit tree or a shade tree. I want you to be a currant bush, and some day, little currant bush, when you are laden with fruit, you are going to say, ‘Thank you, Mr. Gardener, for loving me enough to cut me down, for caring enough about me to hurt me. Thank you, Mr. Gardener.’”

--Hugh B. Brown (January 1973 New Era)

Sorry,  I actually looked for the condensed conference quote, but have yet to see the transcripts of this weekend to posted on lds.org.  I loved that quote not only because it was the precursor on an amazing object lesson on accepting that God has a greater plan for you than you do yourself, and that sometimes not getting exactly what you want and when you want is a blessing in disguise.  It really was one of my favorite talks, I think because it might be one of the things that I most needed to hear.  Just maybe.


The other reason I loved it, was because it was a perfect way to allay my husband's fears about my recent back yard venture.  Look at the photos and see what I mean.

I know that I haven't finished, yet.  However, I'm finding at this point it's a matter of figuring out, rather like undoing a knot, which branches to cut and pull out first in order to easily pull out the others after it.  Unfortunately, the climbing rosebush on the other side of the fence and the branches on the back half of the bush are so intertwined, that I have to piece out the branches, one by one, and brace myself pulling with all my might sometimes just to pull it out from between everything.  Thankfully with each one the mass thins. ☺ It's a happy thing.

Anyway I can't wait until I can get this bush done because I would like to still be able to tackle the other bush nearby, the rose bushes on the other side of the yard and some of the black berries before the growing season gets into full swing. (not to mention the cleaning, weeding, and transplanting I'm going to have to do, too).  Now worries.  At least every little bit of progress I make helps me out for the next season.

Anyway, wish me luck!

PS: I've lost 7 pounds since my yearly in January!  Slowly but surely!!  Here is a teaser for the project I'm working on inside the house.