Euonymus alatus is known by its bright red fall coat and called for obvious reasons, "Burning Bush". This particular one has been trimmed as a hedge and to me, does not have the artistic flow that untrimmed versions do as seen in comparison, below. Because of the more horizontal growth, it becomes "woody" over time if you cut it as a hedge. Like a stout person, being more wide than tall, if you give it a flat top hairdo with the hedge trimmers, you are leaving 3/4 of the wood and have chopped off the bloom. This also happens with the forsythia bush, which is an early-spring bloomer in bright yellow.
Pruning back is a good idea but I find that by selectively pruning intermittent branches; higher, lower, inside toward the center of the bush and further out on some branches, you can thin out and back but not destroy the blooming pattern. They are fast-growing, if you goof up, it will grow back pretty quickly.
Because they are so prolific, there are importation and sale prohibitions in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. It is also native to eastern Asia, China, Japan and Korea so we can think about our Eastern neighbors on the planet when we see this red beauty, knowing that they have it in their fall landscape also. I love seeing the satellite pictures of earth in the fall. You can clearly see the range of colored foliage flowing like a colored ribbon down the East coast of America.
A reader concurred with my recent blog entry on setting boundaries and having real change; that true change comes from the inside out and that talking about change is all well and good but action must accompany it.
To expand on this a little made me think of the "burning bush" in the Bible with Moses in Exodus chapter 3. Real change was being required.
When my children were little, bickering was practically an Olympic event for which they practiced and my challenge was to teach them not only to apologize and mean it, but to change what they were doing.
Even a child knows when an apology is sincere and when it is not. Coming from an adult, when an apology rings false, it is something that immediately lowers my opinion of that person down to the basement.
Apologizing to satisfy a parental demand was not sufficient. Saying "Sorry!" when they were not looking the other person in the eye and not being specific about what they were apologizing for, was not enough.
"Sorry I pinched you" is not enough. Real change is required and when attained, a forced apology is no longer necessary because the offender will see that they have done a wrong and right it themselves.
They will initiate the correction from the inside out. When we quit avoiding the real issue, which is gut-level change, and do what is required, then we will have the results. This is what is meant in second Corinthians 7: it is not enough that we run our mouth, it has to be coupled with change to get the desired result. The "repentance" in that usage is our words unto a change.
You know the expression "Charity starts at home", well, we periodically need to turn the mirror around on ourselves, taking the beam out of our own eye before we start picking at the splinter in somebody else's. This change stuff is not easy but I also want to focus on why we have to confront things in our life sometimes.
We want the issue or situation to genuinely change. That's it! Not a big religious event or practice. We simply want our lives to be different and if we really want to face truth, change by its inherent definition, is not static. There are few things in life that do not need re-visiting from time to time. Opportunity to change is given to us, forced upon or decided about so, we might as well face it head on in order to stabilize more quickly. Better quality of life is what we are after, so if this is lack of action is not making real change in our life, then we will not extricate ourselves from the quick-sand that we have put ourselves into.
If this is a recurring issue with a spouse, then this repeated offending without real change can become a deal-breaker. It is not enough to say "I won't do it again" if you know that's a lie when you hear it, whether it is out of your own mouth or out of the other person's. If you are the perpetrator speaking half-truths, I would take a hard look at why you want to continue to hurt this person you are with by your lack of ownership. If you are the one on the receiving end and it keeps happening, then you have a different decision to make.
There is one more ingredient to getting the desired result in the situation, and for me, that is prayer, but here's the thing with that. You can't just pray about something and not do what is required on your part either. You have to be a doer as well as a speaker. Man, you just can't get away from accountability and ownership. They are all tied together.
You can have words, and you can have words without change. You can have prayer but no action and no change of heart. You can have change of heart and action with no prayer. That gets results, no question. Many people do not pray, do not know how to or do not want to.
However, prayer is the yeast in the bread of life; to get the best results, add all the ingredients together and you will get loaves in abundance beyond your wildest imagination in the area of change that you are seeking. No question that flat pita bread is good bread, but there is nothing like the full big crusty-on-the-outside, warm-and-chewy-on-the-inside type of bread.
It may take awhile for the yeast to do its work and time to bake but there are crusty-chewy loaves in abundance to a person who uses all ingredients in the recipe.
I will be travelling for work the next several days so happy baking and enjoying of warm bread and fall to you!
