Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love It will not lead you astray.*
(Rumi)

When we are in rhythm with our own nature, things flow and balance naturally.**
(John O”Donohue)

I’ve been reading about harvest festivals as I came into today, how the people of Israel were to bring the firstfruits from their harvests in a celebration with their God.

One thing that struck me about this practice is that it is very much about the present: the celebrants actually had the necessary “fruits”in their hands. It wasn’t a fading memory from their past leading them to be stuck in nostalgia, nor was it a worried concern about the future.

It gave me an idea for a personal festival from the things that fascinate us and where these lead us that can help us be more present.

We tend not to stop and celebrate the things that have gone well so the festival will help us to do this. These don’t have to be big: it can be more helpful if they are small.

Give yourself two or three minutes: sit or stand comfortably, breath in and out slowly and deeply three times, then breath normally, bringing to mind something that went well from yesterday or today: an appointment set up, a customer that smiled because of our service, the doodle completed, the research that found the important source … .

Be grateful for this, for what it means for you and for the person you were doing this for.

Perhaps this is why beauty touches us so deeply. When beauty touches us, we remember who we are. We realise that we come from the homeland of beauty.^

*Rumi, quoted in Elle Lua’s The Crossroads of Should and Must;
**From John O’Doohue’s Eternal Echoes;
^From John O’Donohue’s Divine Beauty.