I love the soups and stews of fall, and this metaphor makes me think about the myriad of flavor and ingredients that go into them, each walker here bringing a different flavor and together making something much more flavorful than we ever could on our own. Same with financial engagement here, each contribution creating together something that can be served to our communities around the world.

What strikes me most about this piece is how few people actually do this – harvest and preserve – in contemporary times, in Euroamerican societies. We’ve modernized beyond the cycle of agriculture in most personal lives. And while we can still eat in spite of this, we’ve also lost our connection to the metaphor of the cycle of agriculture. Dig, plant, grow, harvest, store; dig, plant, grow… It’s the rhythm of right work: in the spirit, in the community, as much as in the field or the workplace. I must sow what I wish to produce and harvest.

My October engagement has been submitted.

For weeks now I’ve been getting emails before every Wednesday and every Sunday inviting us and our community to come to weed and harvest apples and vegetables and take home what we need and leave the rest to be delivered to the food bank. Our friend cares for an orchard and tends a garden that produce much more than she living alone can eat, but also more than her whole family compound can eat. It is food for the community cared for by the community as well as by an individual. Harvest and bounty and sharing. My bounty that I share mostly is in the form of money and time/expertise. I must always be paying attention to seeing the bounty instead of the false scarcity. I have engaged in October and will reevaluate later in the month for additional engagment.

I have engaged for October, and at the end of the month, I’ll take another look at my harvest and see if I can do more. For me and my little harvest, of money, or power, whatever you may call it, this is my routine. First fruits always, then evaluate again later.

Not all harvests are bounteous. Many just sustain. But I have sustenance regularly, and that’s more than many can say. It isn’t fun to go lean. But many have no choice. So just like fasting during Lent isn’t starvation, going lean to engage with my harvest of power and resources to pool them where there is a need, this is how I keep my skin in the game.

It’s not the game. It’s just keeping my skin in it. I have to actually play the game, too. I can’t just harvest and mete out what I harvest. I have to eat to live, and also live. In some ways, financial engagement is the easy part. At least for me. I need to keep getting better at the harder part, too. The actually working in my society for the improvement of it, to lessen and mitigate the harm endured by Black and brown people in it, perpetuated by the white people and white supremacy in it.

We’ve already had frost where I live on the east coast of Canada and it wouldn’t be a surprise if it snowed any day now and yet I’ve still got tomato plants in the garden with so many green tomatoes that I’m hopeful for. As with my walking here at LoR, my harvest is not what I’d expected but I’m still hopeful for it and see the fruit as another step closer to the soup ready to serve. I’ve financially engaged for October.

I love fall. The changing colors, the soup, the crisp air. We had snow here on Monday so I’m hoping that we will get some fall weather again. The beans sound great. I financially engaged at the beginning of the month and will look at resources again at the end of the month.

The thing that strikes me about this invitation to engage, is your servant heart, Lace. That shines through in every Invitation. Whether it is being written from a place of weariness and worry, exhortation, hope and joy, challenging and galvanizing the community – whatever the tone, the theme, the setting, I can always see and hear your heart in service to the Northstar. That is what I want to model. I want to think that my heart is full of compassion and that my praxis is in service to the Northstar. Most days, I think I come close. But what about when things get tough? I know that when faced with multiple emotionally/mentally taxing challenges, I tend to pull back a bit, sometimes isolate. Yet, when I do this I limit my ability to share what I have to offer in service to the Northstar. And, I do always have something to offer. I sometimes remind myself of what Lace has said: You always have a dime. Physically, my resources are a bit more limited at the moment, BUT, it is true – I do still have something to share and I want to share what I have. Even if I only have a handful of celery sticks in comparison to the few stalks I typically bring, it will still make a difference. Maybe with less celery to chop, I can contribute in other ways – like setting the table, or even stirring the pot. 🙂
I will always be here. I will always be looking to learn new ways to harvest, places where I need to go lean and other areas where I need to expand.