Welcome to the Harvest Issue of GHL. It's our third foray into the far
reaches of green, and we're getting pretty far out there. In fact, we're
now on the complete opposite side of the sun from when we started. Our
first issue was on spring cleaning, which focused on clearing out the toxins in our homes, to create the space for reconnecting with the spiritual. The second celebrated the diversity of our garden under the hot summer sun. And now
our third is about coming around to the harvest. The days are the same
length as spring, but the quality of the light has changed. Just as the
palette of sunrise and sunset differ, so too does spring's sunshine of
possibility to autumn's long rays of taking stock. We feel ourselves
moving in the same direction, but now we're going the other way.
Harvest is about reaping what we sow. We put seeds into the ground, nurture them and now we're enjoying the results, amazingly transformed into fruits or vegetables. We prepare something, put it in the oven, and now we're setting it on the table, the end product wonderfully different from the initial ingredients. Harvest is about celebrating our faith in letting processes happen, coming to fruition within the cycle of life.
What is the purpose of harvesting? We gather up the results of our investments in the natural world, the fruits of our labors, and enjoy them. But when? We're told to live in the moment, but the exigencies of our material world often require us to postpone joy, mediate pleasure, and a lot of the time . . . wait. It's up to us to transform that waiting into not waiting, to harvest. As the humble ant puts away something for later, let us be open to the idea of saving as its own reaping, sustainability as its own payoff. And then when the time comes to
enjoy that something,let her reap!
Thus with harvest we start anew. Harvest is the activation of the
thought: Now is the moment for enjoying the moment! Now is the time for
reaping the sum total of everything that has been put into our lives -- up to
this point. Harvest is giving ourselves permission to enjoy things in this
moment. It may be by virtue of the work we've done. It may be not. But
harvesting happens. And when it does, from the moment of harvesting, we can live in that
moment as this moment forward.
Pad through your home, make dinner, sit down, relax,
breath. Let your eyeballs harvest the color you have planted on
your walls, let your nostrils take in the multi-various scents of the space you have
enclosed, let your ears tune in to the sounds of the world you have helped to
build, your world. Harvest is experiencing our environment in its totality, coming to
fruition each and every moment. It's all food, and it's all ripe, and it's
up to us to pick it every moment.
Let's get on with it.
- LC
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