Today is Pongal and Makar Sankranti. It’s the harvest festival when tributes are paid to the Sun God and prayers are offered for a bountiful harvest.
Apart from the tasty preparations, I love what this festival symbolizes.
When the clock strikes 12 on December 31st, people scurry to begin leading their new lives. Pretty soon, motivation runs out and everything is back to status quo.
The farmer doesn’t just harvest the seeds and then hope that everything will turn out alright. He doesn’t employ the law of attraction where he sees a bountiful harvest at the end of the year while he sits at home. Even if everything is done correctly, the final harvest is subject to vagaries of nature. In spite of all this, the farmer still harvests and puts in the effort in the field every day.
Now, imagine the farmer going to the field after a month and deciding that it’s taking too much time for his harvest to bear fruit? Sounds ludicrous. He has to go to the field everyday and care for his crops. Trying to hasten the process or find some short cut will eventually work against him.
Changing the culture of an office from toxic to open and friendly, changing a dis-empowering habit to an empowering one, all of these don’t just need grand proclamations, they need repeated daily action to bring about the desired harvest. An unhappy office doesn’t become happy overnight nor can a couch potato on December 31st magically run a 10k on January 1st.
For us, there is no right or wrong time to plant the seeds for a better future. But like the farmer, we have to work at it every day if we are to reap the harvest that we so desire.
And if you’re wondering when to plant the seeds, the harvest festival maybe a good time.
Happy Pongal and Makar Sankranti!
