The Elephant

Harvesting peace.

October and November are traditionally the months of harvest, when

seeds that were planted months before become plants and foods that

nourish us throughout the winter.

On this month’s blog, I will use the metaphor of harvesting to talk

about how we can grow peace and harmony in our individual lives, in

our families and in our worlds.

Peace comes forth from the patterns of our thoughts, emotions and

actions and the connection of those thoughts, emotions and actions

with the faith in a god who is greater than the seed or the garden

alone, greater than our individual thoughts, emotions and actions

alone.

We can go to Wegmans and buy a harvest basket and all the foods we

need for a Thanksgiving dinner.

The bountiful harvest of love and peace, however, does not come that

easily. So how can we reap a harvest of peace.

First let’s talk about harvesting in our everyday lives first, and then look

at harvesting peace in the whole of our lives.

The first step is to know what season you are in. Different crops

require different amounts of time in the ground. You wouldn’t plant

watermelon seeds today and expect to eat watermelon next Sunday at

a family picnic. Yet so often we plant a seed and expect immediate

results or we plant it too late in a season not giving it enough time.

At 75,I am in a late season , and need to take care of my body in ways I

didn’t have to when I was younger. I have more arthritis and less bone

density. Menopause has messed with my muscular structure.. and my

joints are weakened due to that decrease in muscle.

Second step is to know if the soil will support your crop

Take time to prepare the ground.

We can’t be passive and assume that our efforts will meet with

cooperation and be a success if we are planting in a place that can not

support them.

What do you need to do to prepare the ground in your life and how do

you do that?

First assess the soil. If you are not familiar with the crop you want to

harvest, get the soil tested professionally. For me that meant seeing

my chiropractor, and naturopath for help with supplements and a

general physical. Maybe it will require therapy.

Maybe the soil is dried out due to a lack of care over the years and

needs fertilizer and preparation before you plant. I was always very

fortunate to have a body that was structurally healthy and I was always

busy moving around. When covid hit, I stopped going to the gym,

stopped yoga classes, stopped working and spent a lot of time at home

with Netflix. now I need to start out slow since my exercise routines

have dried up.

Maybe the ground you want to plant in is hardened with anger or stuck

in a refusal to learn new ways? You might need to dig it up to loosen

hardened dirt.

I looked over my closet last week when the weather started to change

and realized I haven’t worn ¾ of the clothes in there. My size and

weight haven’t changed much but the shape of my body has and those

clothes, even if they fit, do not look right. Keeping them there,

reminding myself of how I used to look, is not healthy. So I am giving

away anything that is not what I wear, as I am today, inside and outside

my home.

Or maybe there are some large stones you might need to remove.

Grudges, resentments, blame are stones that can prevent tender roots

from growing in the right direction.

Hating my body…. hating aging……are poisoning my efforts at

harvesting health. That hatred needs to be removed before anything

good can grow.

Remember, you are the gardener. Remember it is a process to harvest

food. It is also a process to harvest health.

A line from Corinthians says “ he who sows sparingly and grudgingly will

also reap sparingly and grudgingly, but he who sows generously will

reap generously with many blessings”

We can’t expect miracles….. but we can work for them and place our

hope in Gods divine plan.

When you go out and look out over you unplanted field, whatever that

might be, bless that ground, imagine its possibilities, envision green

even when you only see brown.

Learn to love working for your harvest….. in the harvest’s time…… not

yours.

Third step is to plant your seeds according to the harvest you want to

reap.

Do you want family harmony?

Do you want financial security?

Do you want better health

Do you want to build community ?

Do You want internal peace?

And of all those things you want, which seed needs to be planted first?

Do you have seeds that might take more than one season of harvest to

produce fruit?

If what you want is a degree that will provide an income that is

satisfying, it will take a few years.

If what you want is a happy healthy child, that will also take quite a few

years.

And when you know what you want to produce, you need to find the

right seeds. Pumpkin seeds won’t give you a beefsteak tomato .

Another important practice is to plant multiple kinds of seeds.

If I want my harvest to provide my family with healthy meals I can’t just

feed them pasta, even though they might want and like pasta.

They will need protein, vegetables, fruits, fats and grains.

If I want a harvest of flexibility and strength , my daily walk is good….

like pasta…. but on it’s own, it isn’t enough

It will need weight and strength training, stretching, balance and yoga.

The fourth step is to actually sow your seeds. Seeds are what you put

in the ground, time, money, resources, energy

Sowing is how you put those seeds in the ground…with faith, hope,

love, generosity, willingness, humility.

Faith . For me in terms of my health, I need faith, to believe in myself as

important and worthy enough to deserve the harvest and to believe

that God might need me to look less like Jane Fonda and more like Ann

in his divine plan.

Hope .For me that means waiting without expecting instant change.

Hope is not just what I want to happen, it is also how I wait.

I tend to be a “quick giver upper” quitting before I see the harvest.

I also need to watch my words, and rather than looking at the harvest

pessimistically, I need to nurture it with positive words and a positive

outlook remembering that harvest only comes when the process has

been stuck to and completed

LOVE

I have sometimes been really hard on myself, expecting perfection,

shaming myself for even the littlest things and believing that I am just

not good enough. That is not love. And those things will have to be

replaced if I am going to see a harvest of health.

Generosity

I also tend to be the kind of person who is always rushing through

things. I need to give myself TIME. …..the emphasis on both words

myself and time. And it needs to be done with compassion and

understanding, not as a demand.

HUMILITY

Two kinds of humility I need here. The first is to admit when I am

falling into old behaviors, without excusing them or blaming my busy

lifestyle for them, and then sharing them with someone so I don’t fall

into shaming myself for them.

The second kind of humility I need is remembering the definition of

humility. Knowing the truth of who I am.

The fifth step is to provide the nutrients that your crop will need. All

plants need water, sunlight, plant food, protection from the elements,

protection from pestilence, pruning and weeding.

If I want to harvest health,

I will need to provide the element of water that will nourish it

Actual water for sure, but also, the water of flow and flexibility.

I will need to provide light…yes getting out in actual sunlight not just

exercising in the gym or the basement but more importantly friends

who will inspire me and cheer me on, knock on my door, send me texts.

I will need to provide food

The actual food yes but also words of encouragement

I will need to provide protection from the elements.

1…winds of change..excuses “oh you need me to babysit, no I didn’t

have any important plans for today

2…drought…the winter months when I want to stay warm and not do

anything, or the summer months when I am too hot to do anything.

Drought being the absence of the conditions I prefer.

3…floods. getting my energy washed away by colds and illnesses.

Floods of defeat… Every seed you have ever sown will reap a harvest,

no matter how long the seed has been out there. Sometimes however,

it turns out to be something other than what you planted. Don’t let

temporary defeat prevent you from believing.

4…Depression. feeling achy or not seeing results

5…anxiety created by trying to squish too much in a day

The sixth step is protection from pestilence. pestilence comes in the

forms of fear, doubt, negativity. When I hold to fear, the thing I fear

grow bigger. When I doubt, I lose confidence in the process and quit.

And any negativity about the future harvest needs to be dropped. We

don’t argue with it, we don’t resist it, we simply remove our attention

from it and put our attention where it belongs, on god’s unconditional

love

The seventh step is weeding

What are the weeds in your garden?

Some weeds are unintentionally planted with the seeds because we are

so used to them and didn’t take them out before planting.

Things like negative self talk. How aware are you of your inner

dialogue? If my goal is to harvest seeds of a joyful and peaceful life, but

my thoughts are weeds of negativity and anger, those thoughts will

choke out my harvest.

I have become aware that my thoughts and words about aging are

often anything but peaceful. Sure I say them in a funny offhand

manner, but that still does not make them peaceful.

So, In addition to praying for self acceptance, I need to create mantras

of positive words to say over my body. The words I speak go out into

the atmosphere and are heard many times over. Sort of like toxic rain

falling on my garden, where weeds of negativity flourish and tender

healthy plants wither.

Then there is the weed of negative attitudes. Are you waiting for the

perfect moment to sow, when everything else in your life is perfect?

That moment never comes and if we are always focusing on negative

conditions we will lose faith in the harvest

Then there is also the weed of Habitual worry

Habitual worry like water dripping, will erode the surface it is falling on.

Worry triggers cortisol which leads to health problems and leads to

impaired functioning in the brain. Combat worrying about your harvest

by

1 not looking back on your decisions

2 strategizing for worst case scenarios instead of picturing them

3 fate it till you make it

4 finding joy in this moment

5 resisting comparing.

Then there are the invisible weeds that just seem to crop up

things that trigger us like self sabotage, addictive patterns and old

established habits, toxic people

What is getting in your way of recognizing these various kinds of weeds

before they choke out your harvest?

Denial, rationalization, numbing out with behaviors or substances?

Once we recognize the weeds in the garden of our desired harvest, how

do we get them out?

If you have ever tried to weed a garden, you know the weed you see

coming up through the soil is small compared to the trails of roots

underneath it.

So weeding has to be a daily process, a willingness to look at and

address our subconscious attitudes. This is where our 10 th step comes

in. If we are not doing this, unseen weeds may continue silently running

our lives in ways that really don’t serve us.

And when I notice the beginning of a weed, I need to pull not only the

weed out but also pull my ego out of the equation. I am only human

and all I can do is my best. If I miss a weed or two, start over and give it

to God.

Some weeds are spiritual problems, they will need spiritual practices to

remove them.

Prayer…. are your prayers old or rote, no longer a reflection of who you

are today? Could you write prayers that talk about who you are and

what you need?

Do you need to revisit your childhood images of God?

Meditation. Do you refuse meditation because you can’t do it or

because you think it is a waste of time? There are so many ways to

meditate. Find one that fits you.

Visioning. Are you so conditioned by the bleakness of our world that

you can’t see something better? Get therapy or join a group of people

who volunteer to help the less fortunate.

Some weeds are addiction issues. Remember not all addictions are to

substances. Here we are focusing on preferences versus chemical

addictions. Any desire that makes you unhappy or upset if it is not

satisfied can easily morph into active addiction so consider saying I

prefer rather than I must have. Are you stuck on being right? Are you

trapped in having to have specific things? Preferences involve thought

and preparation. Addiction imprisons you.

Some weeds are emotional issues…are you stuck in grief?

are you stuck in anxiety that always seems to forecast the worst? Are

you stuck in anger at someone?

Some weeds are relational issues. Do you know how to communicate

with a difficult person? Are you the difficult person? Are you living with

someone you hate because you are afraid to leave?

Since weeds grow underground roots before you see them above the

soil, it takes rigorous self examination to find the signs

1…It takes a willingness to own our subconscious negativity

2…It takes patience in digging them up, one at a time, and looking at

them honestly so we can see what kind of weed we are dealing with

3…It takes non attachment. Refusing to let our ego rage just because

we discovered some weeds.

4…It takes releasing self judgement and blame

5…It takes a belief in the power of the divine gardener

The last step in gathering a harvest is how you gather it.

Be careful of procrastinating on the harvest or rushing so much near

the harvest end that you are too tired to follow through.

A harvest doesn’t just jump from the field to the table.

Someone has to go out and reap it so be careful of sitting back and

leaving that to others. Also, be careful of thinking you can do it all by

yourself. Be generous with your harvest. Whatever you have harvested,

celebrate it. Share the results of your harvest with others.

Each day you go to work and earn a paycheck, each time you

experience love from your family, each time you experience the

closeness of God, each time you are filled with a sense of goodness, you

have experienced harvest.

In scripture, the symbolic meaning of harvest encompasses two areas.

God’s providing for us and God’s providing for others through us.

Traditionally harvest is celebrated just once a year, but we can

experience the spirit of harvest all the time, if we are open to it.

So now you have the principles of harvesting, and hopefully you have

connected with an area of your life that has not been producing good

things and are willing to consider what you need to do to change that

Let’s go on to consider harvesting peace in our lives.

What kind of peace harvest do you want to see in your life? You need

to identify this so you can choose the right seeds. If you have too many

things to work on, too many seeds to plant, your harvest will be sparse

and erratic. Look at 3 kinds of peace, inner, family and world.

INNER PEACE

Inner peace is defined as a state of spiritual or psychological calm with

enough knowledge and understanding to keep oneself strong despite

the potential presence of stressors.

It includes not ruminating about past incidents, overthinking, and

analyzing every situation.

Without internal peace we feel in a constant state of conflict which

chokes out peace of any kind

So how do you harvest internal peace? It’s like cleaning out a room that

has been accumulating too much stuff. Get rid of the old stuff and keep

only essentials. But you have to decide what those essentials will be

and you will probably need help deciding that.

If you are a person prone to quick anger get help with anger

management. If you are a person who is insecure, develop self

confidence and self esteem.

But the most important thing to do is clear your field of the weeds that

prevent peace. Meditation, mindfulness, prayer and willingness to let

go are the tools we use to clear the soil. Remember how step 4 and 5

cleared your way?

FAMILY PEACE

Is your home and family being moved and inspired by your internal

peace? Does your internal peace guide your life decisions? Does your

internal peace calm others? Is your home and family engaging in things

that raise their spirit, or are you just struggling to get by? Or is your

home and family mainly just a reaction to everything that is happening

on the outside?

All of the things that govern a plentiful harvest apply to our home and

family lives. There is one more though that is specific to people not just

crops or things.

That is BALANCE

When life is out of balance we are continually trying to catch up and the

longer it stays out of balance the more there is to catch up to.

The more areas that are out of balance in our families, the more

confusion there is. So, in peacemaking, as in family, balance needs to

happen on a daily basis. What kind of balance are we talking about?

First…..The balance in how you relate to yourself and how you manage

yourself.

SECOND….the balance in how you relate to others as a group and as

individuals.

THIRD…the balance in your activities of daily living…work, meals,

exercise, prayer, relaxation, sleep

FOURTH…The balance between your thoughts and your actions. Do

they support and compliment each other?

FIFTH…The balance in your unspoken and spoken words.

Are they coming from the peace you ultimately want to see expressed

or from your impulsivity and anger and expectations?

Sixth… The balance between your values and your choices

When one of these areas is significantly out of balance or when a

number of these areas are moderately out of balance, a harvest of

family peace is threatened.

What do you do when you realize there is a lack of balance in your life?

We work on it. One day at a time. Literally One day at a time.

Now I understand that is a lot to think about and no one could address

all those areas at one time

Begin harvesting a peaceful balance in the morning. Before running in

to your day, ask for a blessing on it. Identify what is going on in your

mind that is not peaceful and make a plan to address that throughout

the day. Set an intention.

If you are feeling deprived set an intention to look for gratitude

moments. If you are feeling uninspired set an intention to read, listen

to music. walk in nature. If you are feeling unwell carve out self care

time.

Then continue harvesting peace during the day. As you go through your

day, check on the condition of your crops.

1…As you clean, are you doing it with love?

2…As you listen to someone are you doing it with patience?

3…Do you greet people or keep your eyes down no contact?

4…When you forget something, can you laugh with self?

5…Do you express feelings or block and numb them?

6…Do you stop to breathe and celebrate little things during the day?

Then at night, when your harvest work is done, do you recount the day

in gratitude, do you release regret and embarrassment, do you rest in

the care of your HP? Is prayer, the continual foundation of your own

balance and your family balance? Do the people in your world see

peace in your daily life? Do you teach and model these things or try to

force a kind of peace.

We each are a prayer from God to our world. What kind of peace does

God bring to your world through you?

Is the God of peace the center of balance in your life? Is God the Lord of

your harvest?

When God is the balance in my life, then the harvest is what he gives

me to meet my needs as well as what he gives me to give to others.

And then, I am part of the process of bringing peace to my family not

forcing it on to them.

When I am relating to my environment and the people in it with love

and compassion I am creating an energy of peace that can spread from

my small world to the larger world outside me.

Lets talk about harvesting peace in that larger world outside our daily

experiences both internal and external.

What is peace? Generally cultivating peace is described as a way of life

in which we outwardly respect each other, act and speak nonviolently,

are tolerant of differences and live without physical, spoken or

emotional violence toward others.

We cultivate peace by understanding and overcoming our fears, angers,

resentments, intolerances, beliefs and lack of social skills that cause

violence.

We are all familiar with how the 12 steps have turned our lives around

and given us peace we never could have imagined.

Like with recovering from addiction, there are steps to recovering from

the violence that surrounds us daily

First…work to love rather than control others. When I tried to control

people in my life, even with the best intentions, I was taking away their

power and creating even more conflict.

Instead I want to remember try Peace before power. It worked for

Gandhi!

I want to learn the skills of conflict resolution and assertive

communication to replace controlling. I want to remove from my

communication, ordering, moralizing, threatening, over questioning

advice and giving. I want to learn to speak to the other as an equal,

yes, even with kids.

When I am stuck on advising others, I am assuming to know the

answers to their problem, when all I am really doing is filtering their

problem through my own experience. When I do this, I trivialize their

viewpoint, insult their intelligence and create resentment.

Second…. I want to work on moderating my demands and inherited

convictions of what peace should look like. Wanting my grandkids to

have organized rooms leaves no room for them to express themselves

in their own way as well as no room to learn the lessons that can come

from disorganization.

Thinking in absolutes and holding on to convictions without considering

the experiences and viewpoints of the other is a sure way to prevent

peace. We have seen how extremist thinking can lead to chaos, not

peace. My way or the highway can lead to conflict that pushes others

away.

Third…Develop tolerance. So rather than jumping to negative

conclusions about other people, I want to examine my own

perspective, where it came from, and if it is still what I want to believe

Fourth…Make a choice to practice peace. Avoid negative movies, news,

music, conversations. When you find yourself surrounded by them,

remove yourself first and then ask God to remove the violence.

Surround yourself with peaceful images, people and situations.

Fifth…Reflect on your knee jerk responses. When someone hurts you,

choose a response that is not violent. It can be fair and very clear, but

not violent.

Sixth…practice reflective listening. When we do this we stop seeing

people purely from our own perspective and start to hear what the

person really wants under their words or actions.

Seventh…Seek Forgiveness not revenge. An eye for an eye leads to

blindness.

Peaceful forgiveness means living in the present, letting go of what

should have been, and learning to cope with hurt by acknowledging the

feeling rather than throwing the hurt back.

EIGHTH…Live in joy and gratitude. It is hard to be motivated to

violence against that which you see as worthy of love and wonder. And

if you can’t find good in someone or something today, work and pray

for the people who are being hurt by that situation. I can look at hunger

and starvation with anger at the people causing it or I can donate food

or money to the starving wherever they might be. Even if they are in

my own family. Instead of being angry, be joyful that there is one small

thing you can do.

Ninth…Be the change you want to see. Violence grows with our

acceptance of it. Especially when it is my own violent thinking or angry

outbursts, I need to change me first. Then I can begin to work for peace

with others. I can talk to others about peace, share ideas, volunteer,

teach, whatever your unique ability is, start sowing peace there. If

there is a virtue I want to see in someone else, I first need to let that

virtue come alive in me.

Tenth…Pray for Peace. Ask God to show you what his peace means and

be willing to listen to his response. Pray for hope, courage, and

compassion to move us to action. Pray for humility and kindness so we

can put the needs of others ahead of our own. Pray for patience and

perseverance to endure the dark times. Pray for civility and charity so

we can treat others with respect and love.

When we live and act from our desire to create a peaceful world in

ourselves, our families and with others, we become the soil where Gods

unlimited abundance can grow and flow freely to all.

God is the spirit of the harvest. He has no hands, no words, no hearts

but ours. Are you willing to be the peaceful harvester in your world?

Are you willing to let God show YOU, instead of you insisting on telling

God where and what kind of harvest you want?

Our God is a god of peace, encouraging us, equipping us, empowering

us to be his prayer of peace in this world.

I believe God asks us not to just pray to him for things, but to pray with

him and with each other in love and compassion.

I believe we also are called to pray in God, remembering we are one

with God and then bringing that oneness to our world.

God, of the harvest, be with us this season. May our tables be places

where we share all we have been given,

where we forgive those who have done harm to the harvest,

where we invite people in who have no where to go, where weeds of

violence, hate and division are pulled out before we get to the table

where we are grateful for the chance to be your unconditional love in

our world.