Sean Dengler.

Harvest is coming up, so this means fieldwork begins. Combines move, trucks haul, and dryers cook. With harvest, comes reflection for those in agriculture and those not in it. If not treated as reflection part of the year, it should be.

While New Year’s Eye is looked at as a time of out with the old and in with the new, harvest provides a better example. The seasons change during harvest. The luscious green fields and landscape turn to beautiful autumn colors before shuttering all the leaves to morph into the brittle, icy landscape for the winter. Summer’s warmth and joys morph into winter’s coolness and doldrums. Winter does have enjoyable moments, but it is simply not as good. Harvest provides the chance to see the years’ arduous work. What has been grown is now being harvested.

For ag-related and non-ag-related, harvest provides time to think about how life changed from spring to fall and what can be done to improve it going into next year. Whether it is deciding on seed or upgrading equipment, this can be applied to one’s personal life. Harvest provides a time to decide whether to continue a relationship, planning a vacation, or choosing a new place to live.

Too often, individuals are caught up doing the same thing repeatedly. Thinking about and evaluating what is the right strategy makes this time of year the best time to be bold and go new and change an existing pattern. Take stock in your wins and losses last year and your riches and spoils. While improving is always important, celebrate harvest and your wins to make your time worth it.

It is time to put life in perspective. Life is worth living and worth living for. Harvest provides the perfect time to think about what life is, was, and what it could be. No better time exists than when stuck behind the slow combine on the highway. At the end of the day, safety matters, as does your well-being.