I nestled into my soft blue and gray wool Pendelton blanket and settled into one of the french wing chairs now looking west. I slowly sipped my echinacea tea and savored how simple life had become.
That blanket was a gift from my “New Life” blessing in May, 2017. A celebration hosted by my spiritual communities to recognize a big transition—completion of a decade-long season of transformative growth and the beginning of a new season of life, a new life altogether.
No one knew what this meant, the least of all me. But it needed to be blessed—sprinkled with luck, favor and protection, come what may.
What would this new life bring? A second chance at living the first life.
The seeds were planted that spring of 2017 and after several cycles of growth, the trees are now coming into maturity, bountifully bearing the fruit of this new life. Ripening since my final job interviews on the Fall Equinox. So much, all at once, and yet almost effortless. Nothing like before.
Starting with Back-to-School here in the U.S., then the cascade of Holidays: Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, I used to associate the fall with the hustle, long hours, strain.
A time of becoming exhausted and drained, sometimes burdened, often burned out. Completely lopsided, out of balance. Just the way things were. Too much to do in the waning daylight.
“Harvesting is the most labor-intensive activity of the growing season,” according to Wikipedia. Yup. Sounded about right. Thus, the actual harvest seemed a fitting metaphor for life at this time of year.
But I had it all wrong.
Reading further, Wikipedia states “the completion of harvesting marks the end of the growing season, or the growing cycle for a particular crop.”
The work is actually already done. We did it. Or we didn’t. Harvest is the fruits of the labor. Not the actual labor.
The planting, nurturing, nourishing, pruning. Creation, growth—that’s where the real work is.
Now I see harvest is a time of transition from creating into receiving. We are just gathering, collecting, picking. Aligning with what is. And, accepting what comes.
Just so, the pile of boxes and furniture sat in my new studio apartment for days on end. Finally, bit by bit, the main room was empty. Just the white ten-foot walls and the dark gray, fake wood floors.
How would this space take shape? For starters, with its best feature. I placed a chair in the exact spot that looked west toward the setting sun and settled in.
I slowly sipped my tea and savored how simple, easy, effortless life had become.
May you accept what comes to bear this week.
Love,
Jules
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