The city gave us a tree. Well, the tree came with the house, but it didn’t belong to us. It was planted by our city decades earlier and grew tall and strong.

Until it wasn’t and it was taken down. But it was a city tree, part of the city plan for how they wanted the city to look. They gave us a new tree.

It was a small sapling. Trees start small after all. It takes time to become something impressive. We had a little three-foot leafy stick to take care of. Since things happen in cycles, more than one house on our block had the same. I could see them as we walked the dog around.

It was a tough time to be a tree. A drought was happening.

I watched the other neighborhood sticks go brown, crispy and dead. I was careful to water my slender stick to keep the leaves fresh. The state was giving us water conservation and use reduction rules.

My daughter was still young enough that I was giving her baths every night. I dipped out gallons of water when she was done with her bath and poured it on my tree-to-be. For almost a year I took this offering of sustenance to keep my tree growing.

It didn’t die. But the growing was very, very, very slow

See, it has separated into three main sections. I’d seen trees in my town that had three trunks. But I felt my sapling lacked focus. I was going to have to narrow it down.

I chose the least promising section and cut it off. I figured the remaining two sections could have a race and show which one deserved to stay.

For the next year i watched it closely. Which branch was bigger?

For a year, they appeared to stay exactly the same.

Was this tree every going to grow into it’s potential? I had poured love and attention on this tree. I had hand carried water to this tree.

And it was stubbornly staying the same. No change.

The saw come out with its steel teeth. The time had come. I made a big decision and cut off the branch. The branch I cut and the branch that remained were the same size.

Then the tree began to grow. At last. It grew as tall as me. And then twice as tall. Then even taller.

That little branch I cut is now dwarfed into the large trunk that continues to grow. I cut off that possibility.

Once the tree knew where to put its energy thing really started to happen. It took me years to make the big choice to cut off the possibilities.

That choice made all the difference.