We grow older. We pass each day, each moment, growing toward fruition.
Just as a tree or a vegetable or a flower grows from its seed to a juicy apple or a succulent broccoli or a fragrant carnation/dianthus, we too grow to be our fullest selves. Ageing is the fruition of a life lived moment by moment.
As we grow into this period of culmination we have experienced endless transformation. We have lived as a constantly changing process in relationship with those close to us as well as to events far away. Though we are not separate from others, our first inhalation began a unique treasury of experience, knowledge and wisdom that we can now gather in as our harvest.
From a single cell seed we have matured. We have moved through our developmental stages just as above-ground plants do. In childhood and adolescence we pass through a stage of rapid growth comparable to the leafy growth stage. Then we bud and blossom into flower as we begin to create our path.
Next the full bloom or fruit appears as our middle years bear witness to our actualisation. This is the busy time, a time where our focus is on ripening into our place in the world.
Now we enter the stage of harvest, the fulfilment of our complete selves. The apple, ruby red, or the energetic crown of emerald green broccoli head or the scented richness of the carnation, has now reached its pinnacle, ready to be savoured. The plant has flourished. It is now ready to disperse its seeds, to share its life with others, in the same was as we humans grow into elderhood.
We contain life-giving nutrients —our wisdom— that can foster growth in others. We are our own harvest.