How to Harvest
This is a sacred time of the year for me, holding more meaning than even my birthday.
There's something about the end of the year that creates a natural invitation to pause, to reflect and to harvest. To take stock of what was, what was not, and to make space for what might be.
The rush of daily life softens into something gentler. Like driving on an open highway – when I'm going too fast, all the signs blur together. It's only when I slow down that I can actually read what they're trying to tell me.
The same thing happens in my inner world. When I allow myself to slow down and take space, I start seeing signs that have probably been there all along. Signs pointing toward needed changes, toward growth, toward truth.
To harvest starts with slowing down. Giving myself permission to do less, talk less, be less, and go less. And from this place of less, I often find more. More clarity. More acceptance. And more peace.
To make peace with the year is the first step before I can even begin to think about my next year. When I don't fully acknowledge and accept my past, my future becomes tainted. I end up dragging unresolved feelings and disappointments into my future plans, trying to compensate or make up for what I may not feel great about. I then start the new year with a feeling of being in ‘debt’ and having to ‘catch-up’. It’s a terribly uninspiring starting point.
This is why making peace with my past has become such an important harvesting ritual for me.
Here are six reflection prompts I encourage you to write, reflect and share with someone close to you, to help harvest your past year.
1. My highlights of 2024…
2. My most difficult moments of 2024…
3. What I learned about myself in 2024…
4. How my identity evolved and changed in 2024…
5. Who I am most grateful for in 2024…
6. What my heart most desires now at the end of 2024…
Reality is full of the wisdom that I need to hear. This is a time for inner harvest. The fields are ripe for picking and this end of year ritual is my invitation to make the space to see what this year’s crop had for me.
And that is how I learned to harvest.
