Karyn's Blogs
How Does Your Garden Grow? - The Harvest of Late Summer
As we come to the end Late Summer as a season this is still a good time to think about our own personal harvest. In the landscape around us the ripened crops are gathered in. This is the season to truly savour the harvest of hard work, dedication, skills and conditions and celebrate and preserve it.
How many times do we start something new, follow the ups and downs and challenges of a new project then, when we reach the end, and a positive result is attained we say, ‘great stuff’ and quickly move on to the next thing? Sometimes we can sell ourselves short of the thrill of reaching a goal because the next thing is racing towards us.
We need sufficient time to really recognise effort and sense of achievement . To savour the accomplishment before we move on allows a person, a team or an organisation to really own the good stuff. It builds resilience, confidence in what works well, and helps our overall capacity going forward because we are taking the time to dwell a bit more on the positive, good and strong and celebrate what we have done. This helps with the challenges and tough bits we all face.
Late summer gives us an opportunity to be reflective. We need to know what is ripe inside us so we can take the fruits of our skills, talents and labours and gather them for the ourselves and others as we head into Autumn and Winter in the cycle for things.
Take some time and find a special place, maybe outdoors on a walk, for the practice of deliberate reflection to sort the ‘wheat from the chaff’ for yourself. What has this year so far yielded? What is no longer working and could be let go, pruned even? How will you shape your understanding of abundance so that it can take you forward with a fresh sense of grace and awe?
Recognising the bounty when we see it in ourselves and in others in others is an act of compassion, consideration and generosity. Maybe we wouldn’t strive for more and more if we saw the sufficiency we already have? And maybe share it? We already have so much.
The flavour of late of Summer
- Where is the abundance?
- What is ripe?
- What can I appreciate?
- What is ready to harvest?
- What needs nourishing?
The qualities of the season:
- Taking stock
- Preserving resources
- Savouring
- Consideration/thoughtfulness
- generosity
- Empathy
- Grounding and anchoring
Here are some LATE SUMMER questions that can be good for us or our clients:
- What might you savour from the past month or year?
- How are you harvesting the abundance of life around you?
- How do you nourish yourself; others?
- What needs thoughtful; tending right now?
- What roots you and yet keeps you supple and able to bend like a tree without breaking?
Practices
1. Pick a week and take a photo using the theme of ‘abundance’. Where does it show most in your life? What do the pictures tell you about what is important?
2. Late summer is associated with the element of earth so opt for more exercise that connect you to the earth, for example walking or climbing. If you are a coach try a walking session with a client or even with yourself after a meeting.
3. Complement someone you might not normally talk to often on a talent that they have been using well. Where do you see people you know growing and using the talents who need some recognition?
4. Identify one of your best talents and decide how you will use it going forward.
Karyn Prentice