"Reflect Upon Your Harvest at Thanksgiving,"
by Susan Dunn, MA, Emotional Intelligence Coach

I don't know about you, but at this time of year I always
think of work.  It's harvest time.  Because of the years I
spent in the MidWest, I was around people who were
harvesting produce, bringing in the crop for the year.  The
quirks of nature notwithstanding, they would be reaping what
they had sown.  The result of their work was visible, and
commensurate to the amount of effort and care they had put
into it.  They also had an ending.  The crop that had been
planted was now being harvested.  Then it would all begin
again.

We do not all have work like this.

My musings started the first of October this year, as I
volunteered a lot of time working at the church's pumpkin
patch, which raises $50,000 each year for local charities.
Most of the time I just sold pumpkins, but two Saturdays we
unloaded huge trucks of pumpkins hauled in from a Navajo
pumpkin farm in another state.

We formed a chain of humans and passed the pumpkins down the
line to eventually be arranged on the church lawn.

On one side of me were 2 parolees doing community service
time. They talked about how much better this job was than
the one they'd done earlier, and how nice it was to be out
in the sunshine.  Both of them expected to be "out" by
Christmas.  I didn't ask them what they were "in" for.
On the other side of me were teenagers from the youth choir
who complained a lot about how hard it was and had to be
reminded to pay attention. I'm sure they couldn't imagine
working at anything for 8 hours in a row, especially
something so, like, boring, dude.

The pumpkins came down the line in various sizes and shapes,
shiny and wet, some with dirt on them.
It was very primal.

I wondered if the Navajos on the other end of the process
had formed a line to pitch them into the truck.  And if they
took pride in their work.  If they even saw the marvel of
the pumpkins any more.

One time there was a middle-aged woman standing next to me.
"You're a good worker," she said.  "You don't complain."  If
only she knew how much I was enjoying myself.
"I was raised with the work ethic," I said.  It's stood me
in good stead.  Having been taught that work was work and
play was play somehow frees me from the "complaining" side
and allows me to enjoy work.  Most of the time anyway.
As the pumpkins passed by us we noted you couldn't tell how
much one would weigh by looking.  There were some surprises.
It's the density.

Such different shapes, too.  "Squash" someone would yell and
down would come a pumpkin that didn't know it was a pumpkin.
Sometimes nature errs.  What is the line between "pumpkin"
and "squash" anyway?  One or the other must have been a
mutant at some time.  How exciting to discover one.  There's
no such thing as a mistake, I'm reminded.

Twice a "perfect" pumpkin came down the line and work slowed
as each person paused to admire it.  No one reprimanded,
"Move it along."  We understood our mutual need to
appreciate perfection when it comes our way.  Once in a
lifetime … twice on the pumpkin line … life is sweet indeed.
We have the archetype of the perfect pumpkin, and the
perfect woman, and the perfect love affair, and the perfect
job. (Hope you've had yours!)

I enjoy that kind of work a lot. Touching things with my
hands, physical labor. It's a nice change of pace for me. I
work with my head, with people, with ideas, and with
computers.

We were a human assembly-line and I thought of the people
who do that kind of work for a living. Maybe you do. We were
able to talk, and were outside on two beautiful, sunny,
breezy days. And it was only for 3 hours. I wondered what it
would be like 8 hours a day, 5 days a week.

Abruptly it was over.  "No more," they yelled, and we passed
it on down the line.  As we workers scattered, I gazed over
the sunny scene.  The pumpkins, which had grown on the
ground were back there, only clean, and arranged orderly by
size this time. Ashes to ashes, I thought, to the same place
returneth, but then the scene became dynamic.  The pumpkins
had a lot in store for them.  Already some were being used
as backdrops for family photographs, while others were being
carted off to become a jack-o-lantern, lawn pumpkin, or
pumpkin pie.

My job, now completed, was part of a much larger scenario,
yet from it I had harvested much.
At Thanksgiving time, a time of harvest and bounty, I invite
you to reflect on your work and your life -- the mission and
meaning side of it. The planting of the seed part of it. The
reaping what you have sown part of it.  Have you? Will you?

©Susan Dunn, MA, The EQ Coach, http://www.susandunn,cc .
Coaching, Internet courses and ebooks around emotional
intelligence for career, relationships, transition,
resilience.  I train and certify EQ coaches.  For more
info on this fast, affordable, comprehensive, no-residency
program, mailto:sdunn@susandunn.cc .