"We who live in a land of seasonal change...have Autumn on our doorstep. Even now the sun rises east and sets west, so far as the eye can see, and one hears regret that another Summer is gone.
In a sense, this is so; and yet no season, nor even any year, either stands alone or vanishes completely. Summer is rooted in Spring, and Autumn is essentially Summer's maturity. The apple now reddened on the tree was a fragile blossom, a delight to the eye and a host to the bee, only a few months ago. The honey in the comb was pollen when June was at its height, and rains of April and hot July nights now come to ripeness in the cornfields. Even before the leaves come swirling down, buds are on the bough for another Summer's shade.
Summer ends, and Autumn comes, and he who would have it otherwise would have high tide always and a full moon every night: and thus he would never know the rhythms that are at the heart of life. There is a time of sprouting, a time of growth, and a time of harvest, and all are a part of the greater whole. There comes the time now to savor the harvest, to pause and know another year not yet brought to full finality.
The rhythm of life and thought and change will be close around us now, and the restless energy of Summer...distilled into the stout brandy of another season. Change is ours to know and accept and build upon, even as the skies of Autumn clear and the leaves begin to fall. Fallen leaves open wider horizons to the seeing eye."
(Hal Borland, excerpt from the beautiful book Sundial of the Seasons)
May I add?
No season stands alone, nor does any choice we make. To have a harvest season, you first have to sow. Then you have to nurture the seed sown. Then you have to stay with it....stay with it...stay with it..."dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness".
Then. Then. Only then. Comes harvest.
If at any point you choose not to nurture the seeds of relationship, if you are harsh towards that living, growing thing called relationship, if you pluck up that which was planted, if you leave it...
...sorry, but no harvest.
Choose carefully. It matters. Tomorrow matters today. Today, I savor the fruit of weathering past winters, blizzards and frosts, rainy seasons, blasts of heat, and perfect seasons...all of it distilled into the fruit of sweet relationship.
You can't make wine without a harvest first. (And the Holy Spirit is a "latter rain" New Covenant reality...He is a Harvest Wine, as typified in Scripture!) You can't have a harvest without cultivating faithfulness. Plant first. Then cultivate continuity. Then comes the Harvest...then comes the wine....then comes the celebration. Real celebration, satisfying in a deep down durable sense.
You have to stick and stay through all parts of the process.
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