Fruit – Fruition

Harvest Is coming Because Warriors Prepare
You became a warrior because you are propelled forward by imagining smiles on the faces of others as the work of community and family harmony is celebrated and enjoyed. This vision can keep us going through bitter hardships.

Challenge – Keeping these visions alive during the training phase is hard, because the growth cycle is long and can be boring and uneventful. That’s why planting occurs in stages, so all your psychic eggs aren’t resting in the same basket. Learn to enjoy all the seasons, without hungering for a single season. This is a good time to contrast group versus individual gratifications and ask ourselves, “What’s that about?”

Danger – Even Warriors can become obsessed with gratification until it takes more and more to gratify us. “Winning” is a shallow goal is there is nothing after. Warriors seek harmony, blending of community resources to make the whole family stronger. The worst outcome is to be locked in an addiction cycle and no longer part of growth, training or spiritual renewal.

Warriors Rest By Dreaming Forward Sitting around the fire telling stories, modeling “success” as peaceful sharing rather than as an endless party. Luckily sleep and dreams are the best model of fruitful dormancy. We require those periods and we need to look forward to their relief and imaginative nourishment.

Warrior Opportunity – every family’s celebration of the success and nourishment cycle is different. Are there leftover behaviors that no longer serve you? What fresh, exciting new ideas might you add? Is everyone in the family/community being well-served or are there grumpy holdouts? It’s fruitful to listen to the grumpy holdouts occasionally. How might they do things differently? If all they want is to harsh everyone else’s buzz, maybe they should no longer expect an automatic invitation to the feast.

Models – “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you will get but by the seeds you plant.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

“In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter, enjoy” – William Blake

“Every deed sows a seed, though the harvest you may not see”

– Ella Wheeler Wilcox

“We are each other’s harvest, we are each other’s business, we are each other’s magnitude and bond” – Gwendolyn Brooks

#Haiku: Return on Investment

Summer pledges sweat
Ecstatic harvest romp
Inevitable cleanse.