When I think of ripening, I imagine fruit doing nothing but hanging from the tree or on the vine, soaking in the sun. A peach is the first fruit that always comes to mind. What starts out green and hard, slowly, magically turns into something with the most velvety, watercolored skin, and underneath a sweet juicy flesh that’s just asking for you to dive in, take a bit and yes, let the juices run down through your hands. I’m never mad about the sticky fingers, it’s always worth it.
My friend Sarah wrote a beautiful post on Instagram this week about giving ourselves time to ripen. Here’s a little taste of it:
What does it feel like to RIPEN? The hard work of growing is done and Summer is a time of sitting on the vine and soaking in the sun.
Can you allow yourself to pause on growing and just ripen?
The times of doing “nothing” is actually when all of the sweetness is born - and isn’t that the point of all the growth anyways? - Sarah Jenks
I feel like this is exactly what mid-summer gives us space for. To ripen. To do ‘nothing’ and just like the peach, to soak it all in. And when we do that, we get to harvest so much more. To be more creative. To give more to others. To have more energy for the things that we want to do in this life. To be more present in everything we do.