Shelter in Place, San Francisco, January 18, 2021
The sun is out, the windows are wide open and we are enjoying the sound of neighbors cleaning yards and houses: vacuums, electric hedge clippers, and the like. Good noise. Maybe it’s the holiday; maybe it’s the weather, maybe it’s the thought that in Washington for the next few days, the country will be literally and figuratively cleaning house, thank goodness, and not a day too soon. Whatever the reason for it, the busy-ness is a welcome buzz, the energy is catching.
So today I’ve started the task of trimming back the old Cecile Brunner tea rose, climbing over the lavender to reach the branches that should go. “Be bold,” the experts write. “The more you trim, the more your rose will bloom.” It’s good advice, I guess, but every year I find it hard to muster the courage to cut back the many knotted branches that have already begun to bud. So I take it slow. Over a week or so, I come at the rose from different angles. I bend and weave among the branches as thorns grab me every way I turn. I cut the most obvious and useless branches first and work my way towards daring.
Two more days and this is what I’m thinking as I duck and weave: may the clearing of the White House detritus be thorough and let's hope it will be fast.