A Time To Reap

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

"A time to sow and a time to reap. A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to tear down and a time to build up. A time to cry and a time to laugh."

     The time has finally come. After all that planting, weeding, watering, and tending, the crops are ready. Farmers and backyard garden enthusiasts are bringing in the harvest. The squashes and pumpkins add fall-like colors to the stalls at the outdoor markets, the apples are bright and juicy, and the desire to create wonderful things with these treasures looms large. There is canning, preserving, cooking and freezing to be done to carry us through the long, cold days of winter when we dream of spring and starting the process all over again. We remember what worked and what didn't, what bore fruit and what didn't, and we take what we've learned into the next planting season a little older and a little wiser.

     The older I get, the more I like to think back on my life experiences in the same way. I can remember seeds I sowed for home, family, career, and dreams galore, some of which brought great gifts, and some which didn't make it. Some took longer than others, while some had to be replanted in a better place, in healthier soil, and tended with more love and attention. Some took decades. Today, as I sit here looking out of the windows of my new little home at the glorious leaves still gracing our trees, I can honestly say that I am wiser for having had those experiences. The seeds that succeeded were the ones I was meant to harvest. Those that didn't were never mine to begin with. I was just trying to grow into what others expected me to be. It might have taken over 40 years to find the right soil, in the right place, to plant my seeds in, but it was well worth the wait. I told my mother when I was five years old that I was going to be a writer. Sixty years later those seeds finally took hold and brought forth fruit. Am I sorry it took so long? Sure. Am I still happy anyway? You bet. Better late than never. Some seeds, like dreams, take a little longer to harvest. 

And so it is.