Now, I can see how September’s fullness was only the transition, the ripening as we move into a new season.
I traveled for work and family trips, worked several gigs and kicked off a new consulting project, as well as moved from the cottage to a house.
But, instead of leveling off, everything is picking up.
After all of that extra efforting, how could there be more?
Especially as important things, like my writing practice and blogging, fell by the wayside (as I thought it might, but hoped it wouldn’t).
How will I get back to my norm?
I wonder as I sit down at my desk after weeks away from my own rhythm.
Funnily, I notice the tree outside of my second story office window in the new house is changing—not only expressing autumn, but also all seasons in a sense.
Some branches are already bare, a preview of winter.
Some branches are full of green leaves, holdouts from the summer foliage.
Though most are in transition making their way from green to red. Eventually to brown and on the ground.
Just so, life feels full and ripe.
As if we are not only harvesting the abundance of this one new season, but of them all.
And in a way, we are.
A tree can not bear fruit without seeds.
A seed can not sprout without compost.
We are harvesting the before, the start, the middle, the right now.
Maybe that’s why life feels so ripe?
So ripe it must be plucked. Right now.
We must “Carpe diem.”
For me, that has been opportunities showing up almost daily that are an instant, yes!
Free tickets to lectures, getting introduced to new colleagues, impromptu paid facilitation gigs, invitations to meditation classes, teaching a live version of the Sabbath course.
At moments it has felt like too much goodness. And then, I remember that there are seasons we sow and seasons we reap. It’s all part of a greater cycle.
This is the season for seizing.
Because just like fruit, just like flowers, just like everything, there is too ripe.
The moment does pass.
Especially if we get stuck in overwhelm, focusing on the everything, instead of what’s at hand.
A wise person (probably a Buddhist) once said:
While many things may be at hand, see only the task that is.
What task is at hand for you?
What is hanging right there before you?
The low hanging fruit, literally.
Go ahead. Pick the low hanging fruit. All of it.
And what does not come to be, what you aren’t able to pluck—to harvest—in time, let that pass with just as much zeal.
This is where we find balance.
Remembering this is a time of abundance—both in opportunity and distraction.
The one is almost placed into your hand. The other requires effort to reach.
You’ll know which is which.
May you savor the juicy possibilities that present themselves this week.
Love,
Jules