This week I’ve been using my hedge clippers to trim the eleagnus bushes that surround my screened in porch and make up the privacy hedge in my front yard. Also called silverthorn, it’s a large sprawling bush that gets very dense when left on its own. This is the first time I’ve used the hedge clippers on it and it was surprisingly easy.  The past couple of years I’ve let my yard become overgrown under the shadowy tree canopy. Since summertime I’ve been opening it all back up to the sunlight, cutting hedges shorter, trimming them close in so they are more lacy and less a dense wall.  I’ve so severely pruned back the giant philodendron outside my office window that it’s completely opened me up to see the entire courtyard and the street.  It’s a huge view in front of me that I never had before.   I can see the entire southern sky as well.  I feel as though I just gained two acres of front yard. My world is expanding in leaps and bounds. The more exposed and transparent, the less hidden I become, the freer I feel. Thank you God for this life and these realizations.