This morning, we begin "eight days of harvest" (an idea that came to me this week!) with 'the harvest of our labours'.  I will post more later, but for now some thoughts that came to me this morning...

It's never a bad thing to pause and take stock, and one thing that a festival such as harvest does is give us permission for precisely that... what is the 'harvest' of the last twelve months in our own lives?

Harvest measured not materially, in how much money we've earned or how many 'things' we have achieved be it goals met, projects complete, promotions gained, etc. but more abstract, such as memories made, love deepened, discoveries made, hope renewed.

My harvest is one of 'less' and of 'more...

Less clutter  - it's been hard work, but so worthwhile, so liberating and invigorating

Less grumps, less worry and less over-reflecting - helped in no small measure by sertraline, and only one recent outing of the Menopausal Monster (I think a blend of sleep deprivation and a massive hormone shift, well that's my excuse)

More reading - oodles of novels, biographies and even some proper theology

More creativity - trying new things in new ways

More security and settledness - definitely feeling more settled than a year ago, and more secure in myself, despite no longer having any sense of national identity, and deciding it doesn't matter anyway.

For all of these, for the people who have shared my year and for the joy the clepto kitties bring me, I am truly thankful