The other night, I heard a story about a man’s life.

He told it in 10 minutes flat through a metaphor about his favorite tree.

He was a generous and engaging speaker, conversational in tone and easy to hear.

He used his Japanese Maple as a metaphor, describing its canopy of leaves in the spring and summer, and its inner core of twisting branches revealed when bare in the winter.

He has had to learn how to tend the tree so that it lives year round.

This involves cutting back the branches and, while the pruning oftentimes leaves scars, he explained that this is what facilitates growth in all sorts of new directions.

Yoga has sort of pruned me.