Harvest Rewards

Like many of you, I've been harvesting an abundance of fruit and vegetables from my garden the past few months. While I dig my fingers in the rich brown earth to find deep orange carrots or firm red potatoes I think about the growing season and pause.

I used to think a "harvest" was the reward or what I would receive after all my hard work. Yet, life has taught me that the harvest is hard work too. Even an abundance has to be gathered in, washed, prepared or preserved. The work never ends. And that is the way I like it.

Maybe we're not suppose to anticipate or wait for an easy time. Maybe the reward is the ability to perform meaningful work. Perhaps planning, planting, nurturing and harvesting is an eternal circle not a vertical list. We're never done. Meaningful work creates the reward and is the the reward.