This is what I'm encouraging people to use to reflect on harvest this week...

Sunday 8^th October

Share worship ‘the harvest of our labours’

Monday 9^th October

Think about our community – who lives next door, do we know them? Who do we meet in the street or at the shops?

Tuesday 10^th October

Think about our daily labour – what are we good at?  How can we offer that to God? What difference does our faith make?

Wednesday 11^th October

Think about the people who seek justice, inclusion or equality – how can we make that a reality in our church community?

Thursday 12^th October

Think about the story of people working side by side to rebuild the walls – who can we work alongside to build hope, trust and community?

Friday 13^th October

Think about Operation Agri and your gift of money – what can we give to this great cause?

Saturday 14^th October

Celebrate harvest with a nice meal and a few treats!  Perhaps invite neighbours or friends to join you.

Sunday 15^th October

Share worship ‘the harvest of our love’

OK, so I didn't get as far as posting this yesterday - too busy going for a long walk and then falling asleep reading a book!!

Our reflections at church were based on Deuteronomy 16: 10 - 20 and Nehemiah 3, the former being the instructions for the three obligatory festivals of the early Israelites (Passover, Pentecost and Succoth) and the second the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem.

It was a slightly clumsy sermon - I had the ideas but they never quite coalesced into a coherent whole - but hopefully people got what I was trying to share.

Key to the festivals were themes of worship, community, inclusion and justice.  In my mind's eye this is a round table where people of all races, classes, backgrounds, sexualities etc. meet as equals, share conversation, are given a voice and give a voice to others.  over food the conversation flows, ideas are shared and developed and community is built.  Everyone of equal worth, everyone contributing, everyone sharing and serving each other.

The Nehemiah story paints a fabulous picture - everyone (except a few who refused) working side by side - priests, levites, scholars, civic leaders, goldsmiths, perfumiers, men and women.  Some made gates, some patched up small stretches of wall, some did longer parts.  Side by side, united in a common goal, rebuilding the city of peace, the city of God.

Somewhere in all of this is what we are about as followers of Jesus - imagining a different world order, taking risks in relationships, valuing each other, learning with and from each other and building a living temple, gathering in all who will come around a table to share in a foretaste of the heavenly banquet.

Not quite what I had in mind when I came up with the title, but perhpas it's the long term image that inspires us to use our gifts and skills more intentionally in the service of God.

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

Yesterday I had a lovely new washing machine installed at the manse, A+++ rated, it's very eco-friendly, has a massive load size and, being free standing rather than integrated can be properly aired, avoiding pong and mould!

Today it was the arrival of a gleaming new induction hob and a double oven, both much 'greener' than what they are replacing.  Still a little way to go to complete the refurb of the kitchen (mostly tidying up of facias etc.) but definitely moving forward.

I'm really looking forward to welcoming more visitors to share in food and friendship in the near future.

Feeling very blessed, very content and very settled.

I've washed my kitchen floor four times in the last five days - and my estimate is twice more in the next two...  Having taken out the plinth fronts to gain access to the appliances that are to be change (well, more accurately, someone took them out for me) I have swept out dust and rubbish that has clearly been there since the place was built... including fag ends!  So, catharsis as literal cleansing is taking place, which is definitely no bad thing.

Last night the teddy bears finally left the building on the last leg of their journey to support a charity, and although there was the teeniest sadness in letting them go, it also feels good that they will do what teddies are meant to do, be played with, be loved, get worn out.  Catharsis as letting go, which is definitely a good thing.

Over the weekend, one of my dinner guests asked if I felt "lighter" for having shifted so much stuff - and it was such a good word, "oh golly, yes!" was my reply.  I still have lots of stuff, I haven't suddenly become minimalist, and I will need to be careful not to slip back into old ways of accumulating clutter, but it does feel good.  Catharsis as liberation, lightening, life-giving.

Massive thanks to J, M and N for practical help, and to many others for non-threatening, non-judgemental encouragement along the way.

Looking forward to my new kitchen appliances being fitted and to entertaining loads more folk in the future.