Grace for the Seasons
Happy harvest from the Central Coast!
Earlier this week, my boyfriend Brent and I visited San Luis Obispo County Farm Bureau President Hilary Graves at a vineyard in Creston, California during wine grape harvest to learn more about our county’s top agriculture commodity.
This time of year, farmers are harvesting the fruits of their labor and reaping the rewards of their hard work throughout the seasons. We walked the vineyards, tasted the sweet, ripe fruit and watched the crew impressively maneuver the vines with their machinery. The harvester drives over the top of the trellis enveloping the vines, carefully harvesting the grapes from their stems before shooting them into the gondola. Soon these little clusters will be taken to various wineries to turn into delicious Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Syrah wines to be enjoyed by wine lovers just like me.
Harvested wine grape vines
Hilary pointed out the vines that had already been harvested. The vines that still had fruit remained a more vibrant green, while those that were harvested were quickly changing color, turning orange, yellow, red, and brown. Once their fruit is harvested, the vines continue photosynthesis, storing carbohydrates in the roots and trunk before the chlorophyll in the leaves begins to break down. After the first frost, the leaves will fall and the vines will become dormant during the winter.
Watching harvest got me thinking...
Do you think farmers argue with their crops in winter because they aren’t blooming? Do you think they get frustrated by them not bearing fruit and insist that something must be wrong with them? No, of course not, because they understand the seasons - the season to be dormant, the season to prune, the season to bloom, and the season to harvest.
Friends, we’re not much different than these wine grapes or any other crop. We have seasons, too - our season to rest, our season to learn, our season to grow, and our season to do. We can’t expect ourselves to constantly produce and constantly create without stopping. A harvest can’t come without the seasons before it.
What if we gave ourselves grace for the seasons just as a farmer honors what the crop needs during various times of year? What if we allowed ourselves to rest without feeling guilty for taking a break, and honored our mind and body’s need to recharge? What if we took time to prune ourselves, to weed out the things in our lives that don’t serve us and drain our energy? What if we gave ourselves time to learn and grow from our mistakes, blooming even more beautifully because of them?
Although harvest may feel the most rewarding, the reality is that each and every season is just as vital as this one. I encourage you to give yourself grace for the season you’re in, instead of wrestling with the feeling of never doing enough. A plentiful harvest can only come when the crop is cared for well throughout all seasons. Rest, prune, bloom, harvest, repeat.
P.S. Confession - it was 80° when Brent took these pictures of me in the vineyard. But honestly, nothing will stop me from wearing my new sweater from The Rural Route Bus. I’m in love and I’m never taking it off.
