bountiful harvest

Have I mentionned I love October?

Of course, it is my birthday month ... and Halloween ... but truly my favorite aspect of this season is The Great Pumpkin!

This past weekend, Cowgirl and I made our annual pilgrimage to our favorite pumpkin patch.  Here in the Midwest, pumpkin patches can be big business.  We live minutes away from the major attraction for our region, but we've only gone there once.  Instead, we head north to our old neighborhood and the family farm that we've been visiting every year since Cowgirl's arrival. 

While the bargains still abound (a trunk full of pumpkins for $10) this once well-kept secret is no longer our quiet, little family space.  Even the owner seemed weary of the crowds despite the fact business is booming and the fields already emptied of pumpkins with weeks to go until Halloween.

I just love the fullness, the jaunty spirit and robust glee of a pumpkin (or gourd), don't 
you?

 

This year feels particular rich and bountiful as I find myself engaged in many colorfully abundant, radiant and heart-filling adventures.  There is my Mandala circle  (still time to join!) that is becoming quite a playground of experiences for myself and others.  

Octopus mandala in progress ....

There is the Fearless Sisters Oracle Deck project that is such an offering of love and a testimony to the power of collaboration. 

And I am excited to share ... drum roll ...

image from Dirty-Footprints Studio

I am rather gobsmacked to be part of this group of woman, many of whom are mentors, inspirations, dear sisters and friends.  They are a rockin' group of creatives and this Spring's offering of 21 Secrets by Dirty Footprints Studio looks to be incroyable! The offering will be delivered via a downloadable ebook which means you have access forever to the workshop teachings, videos and visual materials.

Say what?!

I know ... 21 different instructors, 21 classes to dive into and explore.  What is my contribution?  You guessed it Mandala Meditation and Play. Full descriptions of each offering can be found here.

(Full disclosure: This is an affiliate program which means if you follow the links from my page or the 21 Secrets button on my sidebar and then purchase the course, I will be receiving a percentage of that sale.  Another aspect of the generosity and abundance of collaboration, cooperation and mutual inspiration.) 

Great pumpkins indeed!  Rolling in the bounty ...

 
Proof positive that dangerous thoughts, acts of daring and whispers from the heart do bring about abundant flow.  Even if it is only in pumpkins and girls.  But I love this view, don't you?
 

Dream big my friends ... and be prepared for those dreams to grow!

my great pumpkin (august break)

I want to tell you about the pumpkin plant which our neighbor bequeathed to us this past Spring … 

How we planted it in the bed by the patio where nothing seems to grow ... or rather, grows but is immediately eaten by roving bands of marauding rabbits … so we put a cage around it – the plant, not a rabbit – until it billowed out through the wire squares and then with breath held we released it to the wilds (which is to say, our backyard with ground squirrels, voles, robins, grackles, foxes, hawks and of course, those pesky but impossibly cute rabbits.)

Then we left on vacation.

Fearing to find the worst when we returned because by-the-way we are in a drought here, but of course the plant being a cheeky fellow surprised us by its vim and vigor, 

 

 

quadrupling in size and sporting a jaunty wreath of buds and one nascent pumpkin gourd.

There are lots of things The Husband told me about male and female flowers and how one could manually pollinate them (which seems rather forward, wouldn’t you say?)  but we chose to let the plant decide how things would go. Each day (another without rain but with incredible heat) it grows ...

 

and grows ...

and now Great Pumpkin you rest like a Great Sow with belly upon the patio for all to behold with awe and admiration.

But what I drawn to talk about is this: that when we plant seeds, the only certainty is our hope for how things might turn out. So we attend to them with a mixture of anticipation, trust (in them to grow and in our ability to care) and love.

We then marvel at the determination of Life – pumpkins, our children, ourselves -  to persist even in the harshest conditions.  Survival for a pumpkin plant and perhaps ourselves depending upon long, reaching vines, multiple buds, multiple prospects, and one faithful water bearer showing up as best he or she can. 

And the story - which is really about audacity and growth - continue to write itself ...