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Here at the end of Summer, as we move into Fall, we often see images of an overflowing cornucopia or harvest baskets brimming with the earth's bounty.
Gardner or not, these images are embedded in our souls as the images of success, reward, and completion.
Such symbolic images are packed with meanings like, “Hard work earns a reward.”
Or, “Now is the time to harvest the results of your efforts!” And, "You reap what you sow."
Further, it’s implied that your harvest, or lack of one, reflects your value as a person, your competency, your skill, and your ability—or lack of—to manifest abundance in your life.
Not All Harvests Are Visible, Bounteous, Or Beautiful.
Not All Barren Fields Are Empty.
Whether your fields are full and ripe for the harvest, parched, withered, and barren, or somewhere in between, you can gather gifts from them.
Casting our hopes and dreams upon the fertile earth of our lives is no guarantee of a harvest. It’s an invitation to watch, water, tend, weed, and learn.
We can learn just as much from what didn’t grow, what was planted in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and under the wrong conditions, as we can from a harvest of plenty.
The journey to becoming your own heroine, recreating yourself, and loving your destiny incorporates all you learn from bounteous and barren times. This is The Heroine’s Path. It is saying yes to the entire adventure.
Saturday, September 10th is the Full Harvest Moon. This is a good time to take a walk under its light, write in your journal, make some art, or share a moment with those you love and consider your harvest, gather your thoughts, and offer gratitude for the bounty of all of life's experiences.
The warrior’s approach is to say ‘yes’ to life: say ‘yea’ to it all. Participate joyfully in the sorrows of the world. We cannot cure the world of sorrows, but we can choose to live in joy. When we talk about settling the world’s problems, we’re barking up the wrong tree. The world is perfect. It’s a mess. It has always been a mess. We are not going to change it.
-- Joseph Campbell Joseph Campbell Companion, A (p. 17)