Embracing the Harvest

It’s that time of year again:

Fall.

I DO love Fall, despite its unfortunate proximity to Winter.

I treasure these scrumptiously delicious Fall days. The bright blue skies, the lowering sun angling through the softly falling leaves, the cool mornings and evenings – all are part of this wonderful but all-too-short season.

When Fall arrives, we don’t really miss mowing the lawn, but we DO miss our lovely gardens that have kept many of us spellbound with their ongoing beauty and succulent bounty throughout the Summer.

Ah, Summer. Sometimes you are just a little too warm and we hide inside our air-conditioned cocoons. But mostly, Summer is that time of year when we remember our childhoods – of playing outdoors, feeling the sunshine on our bodies, and living in a Green World where everything is growing and Alive.

My Sweet Wife’s garden was especially delightful this year. She wouldn’t buy an already-growing tomato or bean plant to start her garden. Oh no, it had to unfold from seeds – the very beginning of New Life.

All Summer long, she would lug her garden hose to the flower display in front of our house and then to her sumptuous vegetable grow boxes behind.

It was a joy to see. And it gave her so much joy to tend it. Occasionally we’d have a rainy day, when her hose-lugging could wait and she could rest.

And the bounty? This year our raspberry patch came into its own, delivering luscious berries through August and September. And our tomato plants put out so many ripe, scarlet fruits that we didn’t need to buy any at the store for months.

Raspberry Heaven

And there were tasty green beans, peppers, squash and rhubarb. Not to mention all the herbs – parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme (wow, sounds like a Simon and Garfunkel song…).

Yes, it was a cornucopia of Nature's treats all Summer long -- a truly lovely Harvest.

But, as I noted earlier, now it is Fall, and all of that is coming to an End. A killing frost is on its way, and that will be that for another six months.

I used to not give that much thought, but as I've gotten older I’ve become more aware of how precious each season is as I watch my Time run out.

And as I see those around me also growing old and falling away.

I know I can no longer take for granted another Spring, another Summer – or even another Winter.

Because I know our Lives are like the Seasons. And the years spin by just like the Seasons.

And one day our souls will be harvested.

But I’m OK with it.

Because – like a Summer garden – we all must accept our own Harvest when it comes.

I don’t know about you, but for me, I’m inclined to believe in some kind of Afterlife – one in which the Master Gardener will re-plant the seed of me back into The World.

Or somewhere.

So I try not to fear my own Harvest Time -- whenever it may arrive.

As the great philosopher Kahlil Gibran said in “The Prophet”:

“A little while, a moment of rest upon the wind, and another woman shall bear me.”

Amen.