The Miracle And Metaphor Of A Second Harvest

Some gifts have a surprising way of just keeping on giving. 

We harvested what I thought would be the last of our summer pole bean crop nearly a month ago. By that time the usual invasion of Mexican bean beetles had devoured most of the leaves on the plants anyway, and since I've never been fond of using insecticides, I decided to simply declare an amnesty to all the uninvited leaf workers, since I assumed the harvest was over anyway.

Then the unexpected happened. New leaves began to appear on the vines. Buds and tiny green beans started to emerge, followed by a steady second crop of Blue Lake green beans, unusually free of blemishes and especially tender and tasty. 

I couldn't help seeing this as a kind of metaphor for the possibility of us aging people experiencing a second round of productivity as we continue living out the final chapter of our lives. 

I see lots of signs of that among my Park Village neighbors here on the Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community campus. One of my neighbors has become an active part of an interim Virginia Mennonite Conference Leadership Team. Others are volunteering at places like Gift and Thrift, Book Savers, and other local service opportunities both in and around VMRC. The majority of my neighbors are active members of their congregations, serving in a variety of leadership and serving roles. And they are actively engaged with their children, grandchildren or other younger people as elders and mentors.

So I propose we replace the word retired with rebooted, re-birthed, or re-envisioned. 

Amazing autumn growth, with the first hard frost being only weeks away.