Enjoy Your Harvest

by Shauna V. Brown 

     Yesterday, Rick and I drove past a field brimming with orange pumpkins ready to pick.   Cornstalks, pumpkins, sunflowers, hay bales, rustic colors leaves, orange berries and smells of spice all remind me of a perfect fall season.  I love it!

     While looking at the pumpkins I was taken in thought.. . Pumpkins are one of my favorite things.  You know... “girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes, snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes,” ,.. and I love pumpkins.  Midst my favorites... has to be love my family, my Savior, my faith, beautiful music,  art, and not necessarily in that order.  I also love collecting thoughts and quotes.  In fact, my office is filled with quote boards, engraved words of insights, and even some quotes that are hand stitched. I believe my love for inspiring thoughts started long ago with my mother.  Some people have collections of salt and pepper shakers, mugs and such, but my mother was a collector of words--inspiring, uplifting words. 

      As a child I frequently had the assignment of dusting the furniture in the house.   I could usually count on finding a few random scraps of paper, or envelopes where mother had jotted down a quote from someone. I would carefully tuck them into mother’s hanky drawer so they wouldn’t get lost. I had learned early that even  scraps with scribbled ideas were valued. It was also common to observe mother as she dog-eared or paperclipped a page where she had found an inspiring sentence. Sometimes she would pin a quote to the curtains in the kitchen so everyone would enjoy. She was always reading and learning all that she could and ever ready to share something new with her friends and family. 

       Most of you know she loved to write. She was a published and skilled writer. She dedicated much of her time and talent to enriching the lives of her loved ones as well as others throughout the world. Believe me as a youngster I didn’t always appreciate listening while mother polished and perfected  her writings to submit for publication. Sometimes I even complained at the number of rough drafts she created, always seeking the best way to express a thought. I was her captured audience. Today I truly realize that I was the blessed benefactor. I literally learned at my mothers knee, and pen some of the most valuable lessons for my life. 

      Much like my mother I scribble down quotes today. I even post some of them on bulletin boards for students and family.   I have filled journals, numerous journals, as my family can attest, with random thoughts and personal mind wanderings. Perhaps it will be difficult to find purpose in them for others, but they arefor me, and a moment when the spirit touched.  I like to liken quotes as stepping stones for my personal understanding and daily journey.  I am grateful for those who have shared their inner feelings , expressions, and testimonies through their words. I marvel as I read some of the thoughts shared by Corrie Ten Boon, Helen Keller, Anne Frank, C.S. Lewis, Victor Frankel, Ben Franklin, Longfellow, Gordon B. Hinckley, Budha, Mother Teresa, Max Lacado, Genevieve Van Wagenen.. . and my lists of favorites continue to grow.  

     You understand, sometimes when you read a thought it literally vibrates and speaks to your soul with truth. I love to nibble upon a good thought, as it fills my spirit over and over. 

    Mother always surrounded herself with books. Books of all kinds and variety. She was constantly seeking to enrich her mind.  Frequently she would remind her children that ‘knowledge is all that we can take with us into heaven.’  

     For years and years mother wrote articles, poetry, stories that have motivated and inspired many--especially me. 

     When I was a little girl my mother wrote a simple verse.  I memorized it to please her, but the teaching within it have held a deeper meaning all these years. 

          I had a little pumpkin seed

             I put it in the ground.

  The rain came down so hard last night

    I thought my seed had drowned.

     I didn’t need to worry though

          It’s fine as it can be.

      I went outside, just now

                              And dug it up to see.

      I can almost hear my mother say, “Isn’t that sad Shauna. Didn’t even give the seed a chance to grow. Dug it up, even before it could sprout, never allowing what God wanted it to become.”

     Do some of us question God’s timing and purpose in our own  lives? 

Are we too quick or impatient? Do we dig up the seeds planted within us, and literally undermine our possibilities and purposes? 

     We all must push away self doubts and place our trusting shovels in the bucket of faith and seek for the greater “LIGHT”  to provide all that is needed for our perfect harvest. 

      Today, blow a kiss to heaven... In memory of my favorite writer,

                  Genevieve Johnson Van Wagenen -- my mother.

Her earthly harvest day ~ September 28, 2000

Love to all this Sabbath

Shauna