Planting with Purpose: The Future Grows from Here
It’s Harvest Time.
My garden is done for the year. My mums made it until Halloween but the first frost browned them up. My rain barrels are drained, and everything is put away. I have mentioned before that I am an optimistic but negligent gardener. I'm just happy if something grows. But even this optimistic gardener knows that the garden is done and it’s the time of year for harvesting.
The first Thanksgiving was in appreciation for a good harvest, one that produced enough food to hopefully last through the winter, right?
Metaphorically speaking, knowing what we know now, what could we plant, what would we plant, what should we plant today? To harvest someday in the future? Because, again metaphorically, we are also always planting, just like we are always harvesting.
I was discussing this topic with a friend, and she said that question might feel overwhelming to ask but that it is also the simplest and smallest answer that we need to create. Knowing what we know now, what could we plant, what would we plant, what should we plant today? That’s what we look at this time of year, reaping what we have sown.
Harvesting and Thanksgiving always lead me to reflect.
A few weeks ago, I was invited to the commencement ceremony for one of my recent groups in the Highway Construction Careers Training Program. The 17 students in Class 36 that successfully finished their program have so much to be proud of! If you live near me, the event was held at South Suburban College at the main campus in South Holland. I drove home on I-57 that evening, and I passed the McDonald’s in Blue Island, right at the 127th Street exit and I-57.
When I first moved to Illinois in 1993, I was a health unit coordinator for St. Francis Hospital in Blue Island. It was a good job. I met great people and learned a lot and that was my first foray into healthcare management. I worked the 3 -11:30 shift. And sometimes I was hungry when I got off work at 11:30 pm and I would stop at that McDonald's and grab dinner or a snack and then hop on the expressway and drive home to my tiny studio apartment in Oak Forest, a little sketchy but it was mine, rent was less than $400 a month because it was the 90s, and it was a good little apartment, too.
As I drove home that evening past the McDonald’s at the exit, awareness hit me like a bolt from the blue.
I was driving home from watching my students graduate from their HCCTP Program. I was listed in the program for that evening as a Faculty member. This program at South Suburban College is one of the three career readiness programs at three different colleges and community colleges that I work with. Career Readiness blends the best of teaching and coaching for me.
My experiences have brought me here. I got to watch the students I taught and supported celebrate and move on to the next step in their lives. And, I have often thought I need a better imagination because never did it occur to me when I moved to Illinois in 1993 and would stop at midnight for a cheeseburger and milkshake that somewhere down the road I would have created this career that I have. And it’s amazing.
After that hospital job at St. Francis Hospital so long ago, I went to work for the University of Illinois at Chicago in their Department of Medicine. The love for adult education began with medical students and residents. While I was there, I completed some graduate coursework in Health Professions Education which is all about educating adults, and that certainly lit a fire under me, inn recognizing the importance of life-long learning and also the student support needed when educating adults. I started my company 22 years ago to support my clients and community in living their best lives. I started taking Coaching Classes 13 years ago to improve my communications skills and learn more ways, especially through productivity, to support my clients and my community.
All the seeds that were planted along the way to bring me to this point. I won’t say that I am lucky, as I don’t believe in luck, and I have worked very hard to get to where I am. I do believe in God and His Divine Providence, and I am grateful everyday that the seeds that I planted along the way have yielded such an amazing harvest.
I love what I do, professionally and personally. I love that in coaching and teaching and presenting and client care, I get to help people discover their passions and talents, hone their skills and sharpen their focus to do what it is they want to do in life.
As I drove home, I marveled at the seeds sown and fruits harvested that brought me here. I was overwhelmed with gratitude and excitement, and then I thought - I have to share this with my community!
Knowing what we know now, what could we plant, what would we plant, what should we plant today? To harvest someday in the future?
Harvests can bring a little pain and recovery, too. A few weeks ago, I had another basal cell carcinoma removed, this one from my shoulder. I get frustrated because I have been very responsible with my skincare and sunscreen for 25 years now. But my kind and accomplished dermatologist who has been with me through all 4 removals so far assures me that the carcinomas we're removing now are damage from 40 years ago, before there was sunscreen and the medical knowledge we have now. Unfortunately, sometimes we have to reap what we have sown and it hurts even when we didn’t know any better. And, I will continue to make decisions today that will hopefully help 25 years-from-now Colleen to be healthy and grateful for the seeds planted today.
Knowing what we know now, what could we plant, what would we plant, what should we plant today? To harvest someday in the future?
Consider, the choices we make and the actions we take today are going to impact us tomorrow and the next day and next year and in 5 years or even 30 years down the road.
And doesn’t that elevate today? It does. As I write that, I am reminded of a Will Evans song that I love, Adam and Eve, and the line “the future relies on your actions today.” He shares that as a challenge, that the future relies on our actions today.
We could be planting seeds today that we would be reaping the benefits of in the future. How would we do things differently when we realize that that is the case?
I do want you to answer that question for yourself if you’d like. I’ll go first.
I remember explaining to my oldest son in a deep, philosophical conversation, probably as we were driving, that as a parent, parenting is the long game. Parenting has taught me patience. Parenting is the long game. And other things in life also require patience and faith in the long game.
We do the work. We continue to put good out there. I do the ministry, I do the service. We do those things because they help people today, but the impact ripples from there. Those seeds will be planted and some day may bear even more fruit. We keep learning and growing.
Finally, for perspective, if this suddenly seems really big or the responsibility feels overwhelming, let’s follow this analogy a little further:
(Our actions don’t need to be big.) Seeds are tiny! It’s hard to believe such a tiny thing will yield anything some day. But they will.
(We don’t know which actions will bear fruit.) I don’t know if you have looked at any seeds lately, but sometimes seeds for different plants look remarkably similar, so there is always the unknown when we plant them! I planted herbs in my window planter this morning, and the seeds for chives and basil look the same to me! And that’s ok.
Planting and Harvesting take a LOT of faith.
We nourish and nurture those seeds, even when they’re buried in the earth.
Seeds can be SLOW. Growth can be SLOW. So slow, we don’t even realize it is happening.
Seeds and planting and harvesting are cyclical, my friends. We have to keep planting the seeds or the harvest won’t continue to happen.
And here is the best news, we are growing, right along with the seeds. Using another parenting analogy, apparently I gave the following advice to a new parent when I talked about my kids heading off to college as they were gazing at their newborn: “We grow along side our kids.”
We grow alongside our seeds. We might not be able to imagine the harvest in 20 years because we aren’t ready for it now. But we will be. And the harvest will be amazing.
