The Harvest
Written by: Carol Harrison; Carol’s Corner
Spring filled the air with the fragrance of damp soil, while early flowers and fingers itched to get seeds into the ground when I wrote a post about metaphorical seeds I would plant. These seeds of ideas and goals included projects such as writing more stories, compiling books of short stories and getting workshops ready to share with others. I sowed so many seeds about repurposing some of my previous writing such as retreat packages, doing up journals to go with them and overcoming the fear of using technology to offer the information to more people at once.
I planned to have help working in this garden of ideas in areas I knew needed more than my own expertise. The weeds of negativity and procrastination needed to be pulled out so the harvest could happen in good time. I wrote that harvest will be when those ideas move from my mind and on a page to courses and books available to help others succeed on their journey of preserving memories, finding their voices and learning how to use the power of stories in their work and life.
The growing months on the prairies can be shorter than anticipated. Harvest can be delayed by inclement weather and machinery breakdowns. My metaphorical garden’s harvest has also been delayed by unforeseen life circumstances and an over-ambitious planting. The ideas needed to germinate, grow and be ready for harvest but those curveballs of life have delayed seeing the fruition of them at this moment – or at least a number of them still need more time to mature.
I had the opportunity to work on many of those ideas and am closer to seeing some of them bloom to maturity. One granddaughter did many updates on my website but more are still needed. I count this as one harvested project. It was exciting to see the first ones appear and it was like picking the first ripe peas from the garden and popping them into my mouth.
The marketing materials I planted the seeds of in my garden also matured and were harvested. Another granddaughter designed beautiful rack cards for me to hand out with what I do outlined on them. She also designed a logo for me and a card I can use to encourage others, thank someone or send a reminder to groups or individuals. I had them printed at the beginning of September and the finished product turned out beautifully. I have already begun to use them and have one coaching client as a result. Bountiful harvest just beginning.
The idea of doing more writing and putting some of it together as a little book has begun to show signs of being ready for harvest. I have a small book of travel meditations based on my train trip in 2018 called On Track that is at the editor for its final edits and will hopefully be available by the beginning of November. Other pieces of writing have been published or shared with friends and I now have enough short meditations for a second and maybe third book. Harvest has begun with more to come.
Just like garden produce needs to be harvested at different times, since lettuce matures earlier than potatoes and corn, so my ambitious garden of ideas still needs work before the harvest is done. It is exciting to have those first tastes of sweetness from fresh produce and that carries over to my metaphorical garden of ideas. The first glimpses of harvest are wonderful and help encourage me of what is still to come.
