A Different Kind of Harvest ~ August Reflections
- fayenen
- Aug 1
- 4 min read
Hello my dear friends,
There is something I’ve been sitting with these past few days...
Not because Lughnasadh has arrived on the wheel of the year. But because life quietly brought me here.
This weekend I almost travelled to a gathering of women. A beautiful gathering... and part of me genuinely wanted to go. Another part wanted to stay home.
It wasn’t an easy choice, mostly because neither felt wrong. They simply seemed to belong to different parts of me.
As I sat with it a little longer, I realised something... my body wasn’t asking me to choose between adventure and safety, or connection and solitude. It was simply asking for a different rhythm.
In the end, I stayed.
Not because I didn’t want the gathering, but because something quieter in me knew that, just now, home was where life was inviting me to be.
And in the quiet of staying, I found myself walking through the fields nearby.
They are so dry now. We’ve had weeks of sunshine here, and talk of drought... the grasses have turned pale and brittle, and the earth has that stripped-back look it gets after everything has been gathered in.
As I stood there, I found myself thinking of February. Which surprised me...
Back then, the fields were hard with frost. Bare. Quiet. The first snowdrops were only just beginning to push through the frozen ground.
Now, in early August, they look strangely similar.
One held by winter... the other by summer.
One waiting for life to emerge. The other having poured itself out.
Standing there, I wondered whether we look like that too, sometimes.
Whether there are seasons when we appear stripped back because life is gathering itself beneath the surface before something new... and other seasons when we feel empty simply because something deep has ripened, and been given.
That thought stayed with me. It took me right back to Imbolc... to those first snowdrops. To the woman I was six months ago.
What was quietly stirring beneath the surface then? What hopes and longings was I carrying? What questions had only just begun to take shape?
As I look back now, I’m not sure the harvest is what I thought it would be.
Some things I hoped would flourish have. Some haven’t. There have been joyful moments... and there have been disappointments. There have been times when my body has asked me to slow down, to listen more carefully, to stop trying to keep pace with a rhythm that no longer feels like mine.
And perhaps... that is the harvest.
Not something I can hold in my hands. But something life has been slowly weaving into my nervous system.
A little less striving. A little more trust. A little more willingness to stay with myself... rather than gently abandoning myself in the hope of becoming more, doing more, experiencing more.
A growing confidence that my body might know something my mind is still learning.
Not what I’ve accomplished. Not what others can see. Just the quiet wisdom distilled through living.
So this Lughnasadh, I’m finding myself less interested in asking... What have I harvested?
I’m more curious about another question: Who has this season been shaping me into?
And perhaps even deeper still... Can I trust the rhythm of the season I’m actually in?
Not the season I imagine I should be in. The one I’m actually living.
If you’d like to linger with that for a moment...
… perhaps make yourself a cup of tea. Or cut a slice of warm bread. Or gather a few blackberries if they’re ripening where you are.
Pause before the first sip or bite. Feel the warmth of the cup in your hands. Notice the countless relationships that have brought this simple nourishment to you...
And then simply ask... What has this season quietly grown in me?
You might like to take that into your journal this weekend:
Looking back to Imbolc, what was quietly stirring beneath the surface of my life?
What weather - inner or outer - have I travelled through since then?
Where have I learned to trust my own rhythm a little more?
What quiet wisdom has this season woven into me?
Perhaps you’re finding yourself in a season of transition too. Perhaps life is asking something quite different of you than it was six months ago...
If so, you don’t have to navigate that alone.
Later this month, Sophie and I will be holding another Passages Open Circle - a free online gathering for women to pause together, reflect, and explore what this season of life is asking of us.
You’re warmly welcome... whether you’re simply longing for a space to breathe alongside other women, or whether you’re curious about joining the Passages journey that begins in September.
There is no expectation and no pressure. Just an invitation to come exactly as you are.
If it feels like something your heart would appreciate, we’d love to welcome you.
Open Circle Details & Sign-up
May you walk gently with the season you are in.
May you give thanks for all that has ripened, and honour all that is resting.
May you trust the rhythm that is quietly unfolding beneath your feet.
May you find yourself at home in the season you are living.
With love,
Fayenen
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+44 7847469037
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