Gleaning the Harvest

My garden feels the way I do about this season. It’s not striving anymore; it’s holding steady and seeing what it can do without much effort at all. Flowers bloom on the bush beans, even after the second flush has come and gone. Will these new flowers, too, ripen into fruit? Somehow, it doesn’t seem to matter anymore. I’m thankful for what I get. I do not ask for much of anything.

The equinox season is the height of autumn by the lunisolar calendar, although our western Gregorian timekeeping would have us think that autumn has just begun...But for those of us who have been paying attention – to the change in the light, the flash of foliage, the evening chill – we know that autumn has been with us for more than a month now. The equinox becomes a catalyst, causing all to flush to glory before its precipitous decline into winter…

From now until the first frost, I am grateful for whatever gifts I may discover. A stray crimson tomato. The bloom of a late dahlia. The sweet taste of a ripe raspberry uneaten by the birds. I have no lofty expectations or desires, as I might have had in July and August. I do not look for them, having retired ambition for this year. Instead, I am quietly charmed by gleanings as they emerge, hiding just beneath the leaf…