Slave pruning

Last night I was allowed to go to sleep once the bedroom activities were complete, this was about 1:40 am, at about 7-30 am I was awoken by MT. I escaped to work, but on my brief return at 10-15 am when I was hoping for a pleasant rest, I was put to very rough use again and I also got a bloody caning on my still bruised butt, Grrrr.

Whilst at the sanctuary, I mean whilst at work this afternoon, I was merrily pruning some hydrangeas. I was rather belatedly cutting off last years dead blooms and cutting out the dead wood. Some of this was quite thick and particularly dense at the base (my first thoughts of a similarity with myself). If left in place, this dead wood would inhibit this years growth. It was at this precise moment that I also realised I was very much like the hydrangea in regards to it's need for pruning. Of course, you do not have to prune them, they will still grow year after year but they will perhaps never be quite as good as they could have been if they had been pruned.They will grow unchecked and unruly and perhaps even become unsuitable for their environment. Eventually, if left unattended and uncared for they may even perish prematurely.

Like the hydrangeas old wood, I have held old values, beliefs, and inbred and inbuilt facets of my personality and behaviour that had accumulated over the years. My base, ie my core self, had been cluttered and littered with the past and my indoctrinated beliefs.It was due to 'lack of pruning' that my submission had initially failed to grow and flourish as quickly as it might have done.

It was then that I recognised that of course MT had been systematically pruning and nurturing me ever since I had met her. She has methodically removed unwanted branches (parts of my behaviour and attitude etc) either entirely, or trimmed (modified) them during the course of our relationship. I have been pruned, trimmed, shaped and nurtured, as though MT is my gardener. It may not sound very glamourous but in practical terms it fits.

I am sure MT will find this quite humourous, MT and gardening used in the same sentence, it beggars belief.

But of course, I am not a hydrangea or any other type of shrub, I am a human being. Another 'light bulb' moment occurred and I thought about the fact that a shrub is not able to prune itself, someone either prunes it or doesn't get pruned. I on the other hand, being a sentient human being, am capable of assisting my owner in the pruning process and of growing into what she wants me to become. I believe I have made good progress recently, but I realise I have a responsibility to do my utmost to change/ grow by applying more effort to being what MT wants me to be, rather than the past where I was left un-tended.

It's a good job I wasn't spreading fertilizer today otherwise the analogy might have turned out somewhat differently, and probably a messy and not such sweet smelling ending.