Sankrant is a harvest festival marking the end of the harvesting season with celebration… Celebrating a harvest is the celebration of overcoming the short term.
Those who celebrate harvest have toiled hard. They have overcome the attention of the short term comforts that they sacrifice for nourishing what they sowed. They have persisted in their care of whatever they valued. They have cultivated habits that helped them make it to harvest.
Harvesting is not about sowing a seed…
Harvesting is about our ability to overcome the short term. It is about our caring enough to persist in putting that what we sowed above the comforts we give up to nourish that which we care. It is about caring enough to persist despite the difficulties persisting may put us through. Harvesting is about our ability to form habits of caring, so we may bring dignity in our care of everything we value.
Farmers probably know a lot about the habits that are necessary for a harvest because they harvest many times in their lifetime. Without these habits their harvest would be unlikely. Without the harvest the community will not sustain. It will not find prosperity. It will not have reasons to celebrate.
The rest of us rarely, if ever, recognise our daily experiences, our life, it’s seasons, and it’s generations as harvests that result from the seeds we sow, the “crops” we value and the habits we practice that sustain these crops.
Our everyday choices are the seeds we sow – everyday. Whether we choose to use commercial bottled water or carry our own water is a choice that sows the seed for the consequences we will harvest. When we choose not to consume bottled water we often sacrifice our comforts in the short term. When we persist with refusing bottled water even when it may appear difficult or embarrassing, we reinforce what we value. When our persistence results in creating the habit to carry our own water bottle, we reinforce our habit of caring. We bring dignity in our care of our environment.
Would you rather harvest friendship, clean air, clean water and open spaces that nourish our souls or do you prefer to harvest materialism, indifference, congestion, waste dumps and pollution?
When we choose to entertain ourselves with conversations in parks, playgrounds, not malls, we make a choice that sows the seeds for the consequences of the relationships we cultivate with others and with the environment we live in. Our persistence in expressing our value through our choice and our cultivating habits that make this express our care, ensures we harvest the consequences of our choice.
Our choice sows the seeds to harvest friendship, clean air, clean water and open spaces that nourish our souls or to harvest materialism, indifference, congestion, waste dumps and pollution.
When we make a conscious choice to reduce our shopping budget every day till we have weeks of zero spend, we sow the seeds for the consequences of a clean environment, breathable air, clean water, better real conversations and consequently richer relationships.
When we choose to walk to every destination we can, travel infrequently to destinations we can’t walk to, we sow the seeds to harvest not only a healthier life but also one with much less congestion and pollution.
Our choices, our persistence at valuing our choices and our habit of caring badly, no madly enough, is what decides what we will harvest.
When our choices recognise the short now – the lifetime of a child born now – rather than the short term, the harvest gives everyone a reason to celebrate. It respects the dignity of everyone. It protects the seasons, it protects our wealth, it protects our health. It sustains the world that sustains us.
Choose what you wish to harvest. Care enough to persist with your choice. Cultivate habits of caring enough so there is dignity in everything you do to express your choice.
We will harvest what we sow. Sow so we will celebrate the harvest together. With dignity.
Happy Makar Sankrant!
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#All views expressed in this column are those of the author and Pune365 does not necessarily subscribe to them.
He can be reached @AnupamSaraph
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