This time of year there is an amazing amount of yard work! Bushes are growing, trees are budding, plants are sprouting, and bulbs are bursting forth. My mind often wanders as I get into the rhythm of pruning and cutting and trimming and weeding.

On this particular day I was trimming a very-overgrown holly bush - taller than me and much larger around - when it struck me that my life is very much like that holly bush.

While it is sturdy, heartily growing, providing berries for yard critters, and healthy, it was also way too big, full of tangled runners and snarled-up branches, and loaded with tree litter and pine cones from the towering firs overhead. It was basically a holly-mess.

As I carefully (darn those leaves are sharp!) clipped each branch until I could finally see the main stalks I realized that much like that holly, it's time to trim my life back also, get back to basics. Trim back what I don't need. Get rid of the mental "litter". I'm not killing the plant, I'm helping it to go forth and thrive, and next year it will be full and lush and far easier to maintain. And a whole lot smaller!

The really nice surprise was that the bush was so overgrown it was hiding two landscape lights I had forgotten were even there! Talk about hiding your light... This, too, resonated within me. I've been hiding my light.

The other nice surprise was the sheer cacophony of birds chirping away as if to say "Please don't take our little red berries!" but I promised them that they'd have them anyway. I left the berry branches where they could feast, and feast they did. It was fun to look around and see so many outdoor critters monitoring my yard work, I'm not sure if they were approving or disapproving, they're not used to seeing me outside working. I like to think they were just saying 'hello!'.

It's wonderful to see something so simple - trimming an overgrown bush - produce such a feeling of peace and harmony, a symphony from within that said, "This too, shall be okay. You're not killing the bush, you're trimming to down to its most basic so it can grow back thicker, fuller, stronger, happier."

Go forward knowing that you, too, can heartily trim back what you don't need. Thin your clutter. It'll all work out.

Watch your step!

Have you ever heard of a sugar scrub? Once you try one (especially if you've made it yourself) you'll be a convert. Gives ya baby-soft skin for days!  Mmmmmm... they're pricey to buy but very, very cheap and easy to make. I have a 2-cup size plastic container with a lid so I can make a couple cups at a time - lasts maybe 2-3 applications. Then it's on for more experimentation.

At its most basic, it's just sugar and oil, maybe some scent or essential oil or liquid glycerin soap (easy to get at health food stores or organic markets, so is jojoba oil mentioned below). If you do a Google search for sugar scrubs you'll find a plethora of homemade recipes. There are also salt scrubs but I have not tried those yet.

I like to improvise... the latest concoction I have to admit is the best-smelling and most nummy so far. It was about a cup or so of raw sugar, couple tablespoons of brown sugar, little bit o' fresh squeezed lemon juice, walnut oil, jojoba oil, Neutrogena oil, lemon oil, couple spoonfuls of white sugar (because yours truly put too much oil in the mix and it was far too runny hehehe) and a tiny big of liquid glycerin soap. It should be like cookie dough - kinda clumpy, not runny, falls apart easily. Have to say, that stuff smelled great!

Word of caution - watch your step in the shower! That oily sugary mess on the floor can be more slippery than, well... oily fiberglass. Stand on an old terrycloth towel, it'll give you traction and save your noggin.

Last week did a white sugar, olive oil, jojoba oil, glycerin deal with some lavender oil that was very nice. And no, I didn't smell like a Greek salad, but that was one slippery floor (hence the towel).