As I engaged in my daily G_awed walk this afternoon, I relished the unmistakable hint of autumn that subtly surrounded my steps. Walking beneath the south Florida sun, I smiled as I recollected the days of northern Octobers and harvest festivities. The crackle of leaves, the delectable scent of cinnamon steeping in warm cider, the cheery and robust orange of the perfect pumpkin within the patch; I love autumn! As I type these words, I realize that they will be read by people experiencing fall in many different locales with a myriad of geographies. And yet for me, this season has such a unique yet universal vibratory resonance. It seems even richer for me since I have undeniably entered into the autumn of my life experience. I tried for some years to elongate the image of late and later-still summer. And I have now relaxed into the inner-recognition that in my humanness, fall is here. This perspective allows me an increased spaciousness from which to look upon the harvest of my years and of my experience. I have sown many seasons of intentions, and I have let many potential crops be overtaken by the weeds of my distractions. There are regrets for sure. And yet they are softening in a heart made tender by losses and gains, disappointment and achievement. Scanning the landscape of my life, it has been full, it has been rich, it has been varied, and it remains ever an adventure.
As I contemplate this harvest time of year, I am reminded that countless tons of crops are left to rot every year, all across this country. It is common for farmers to harvest the most commercially appealing produce, and then to allow the remainder of the perfectly good food source to become fertilizer for following years. This is done primarily to save labor costs; to salvage what is absolutely fine in substance, yet less marketable in appearance. There is a practice I have long been drawn to called gleaning, whereby volunteer groups will converge upon the fields, collect the remaining crops, and then distribute it to those in need. Isn’t that beautiful? It makes me a bit teary even typing it. In a world of so much hunger, tons and tons of food is lost simply because no one will take the time and effort to glean the good, and pass it on. What a profoundly simple yet beautiful way of feeding those in need. Such a practice could certainly also lead to a deeper sense of gratitude and stewardship for all involved.
This process of gleaning also invites me to take another look at the landscape of my own field of consciousness. How many times in my increasing number of years have I only wanted to look upon the experiences that I found desirable, while hoeing under the parts that I deemed less than great? How many blessings have I experientially lost due to my suppression and inattentiveness? In grasping only the appealing and the marketable, how many lessons were left to rot in the furthest recesses of my unconscious? What could be gained by taking another, deeper look at the fields of my life, and by finding there a food for my self, supplied by my Soul? Anything rejected or resisted is good that is not claimed. There is good in everything. It is our choice to farm the blessing in all our experiences that leads to nourishment and to strength. And as we are fed by the fodder of our grateful and attentive lives, we feed others by virtue of the collective consciousness. We expand our sense of what goodness is, and where it may be found. We become conscious stewards of our Souls and of our earth. We are awake and available to glean the ever-present good. Our lives are a harvest that we look upon with gratitude and with glee.
As I look upon the harvest of this day, right here in the autumn of my life, I am grateful to include all of what currently is. With an illumined sight born of an expanded heart, I gratefully glean the goodness in it all. It is harvest time and replanting time both. And I am blessed to be the keeper of my crops. What blessing may you glean, dear friend, by simply embracing the day that is?
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