The Metaphor of Harvesting

We are so lucky to have a garden…and to enjoy gardening!

We are less lucky in the amount of time we have to devote to our gardening hobby; key times in the gardening season tend to coincide with busy work periods like the conference…and of course, we live in England, so weekends don’t necessarily mean good gardening weather!

Each year we start off with big plans and good intentions… and we have made some great decisions in the past, which means we have a pear tree and apple tree that are now mature enough to bear fruit, plus rhubarb, strawberry plants and enthusiastic raspberry canes too, which give us a plethora of fruit, usually all in one go!

…and ‘all in one go’ means that in previous years, pears have dropped to the ground and rotted because we weren’t picking them daily, raspberries have become too abundant to cope with, crab apples shrivelled up before I had a chance to make crab apple jelly and rhubarb has grown…and wilted, because I didn’t pick it on time.

Being ‘too busy’ to enjoy the fruits of our labour is sending a less than helpful message to the Universe, so this year, we have stepped up. After all, if we cannot manage our current harvest of fruit, then why on earth would we be given more abundance in any form, including financial abundance!

We have picked berries and made them into coulis or even better, created a weekly ritual for eating fruit straight out of the garden when our grandson visits; I made crab apple jelly this year…and reminded myself that the jam process is not nearly as challenging as I thought; I found a delicious recipe for rhubarb, marzipan and citrus cake (less good for the waistline but really yummy); we are giving away our surplus pears and ensuring the garden wildlife get some too…so making sure our harvest is shared with our friends and neighbours.

I have no idea if harvesting and making good use of the crops we have diligently nurtured will result in more financial abundance…what I do know is that the energy around abundance has changed AND the satisfaction from gathering and sharing our harvest means we are already more wealthy than we were last year!