Random harvest thoughts

I always wonder about people who renounce things. You know – give up on part of their identity, or an affiliation, or the world in general. The notion presupposes that we have the power to banish such influences from our lives. As if we could say, “Get thee behind me, chocolate!” and the temptation would be gone.

I dunno. Conquering that chocolate addiction isn’t about running away from the candy counter. It means examining one’s relationship with the dark forces of Hershey’s and coming to terms with its grip on one’s soul. Becoming a cave-dwelling hermit removes the chocolate from one’s vicinity, but all that ends the moment the candy dish comes back into view. It’s not enough to say we’re done with something. Its grip needs to be gone whether or not we’re in the same room.

Put another way – one can take the hermit from the Hershey’s, but can one take the Hershey’s from the hermit?

For chocolate, substitute criticism, rejection, insecurities, procrastination and all those other thorny bits we encounter as human beings. Those are all things we could cheerfully put to rest.

As I’m writing this, it’s Halloween. Candy is an issue, given the day, but I’m thinking beyond that. Halloween is also the New Year’s Eve of the Celtic calendar. It’s the day when old things—items or ideas we no longer have a use for—can be put to an honoured rest and new projects born.

Now, the harvest isn’t the New Year’s resolution where we worry about going on a diet or working harder or getting to the gym more often. Those are the resolutions that tell us we need improvement. That’s the thinking that would send us to a cave in the hills to avoid what we apparently don’t have the strength to resist. Stuff and nonsense. Running away is giving an issue more power than it deserves. It’s running away that makes the monsters chase you.

No, this resolution is to say buh-bye to all the nagging voices in our heads that tell us we can’t run faster, jump higher, or do whatever the heck we see ourselves doing in our happiest fantasies. We are that fabulous person already. We’ve just been trained not to believe it.

It’s a new year. Something holding you back? Burn it. Compost it. Let that energy go and transform it into something you can use. That’s what this harvest time is all about.

And while you’re at it, have some chocolate. Harvest is all about celebration, not self-flagellation.