Monday Morning Quote
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Monday Morning Quotes
Monday Morning Quotes
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Since 1998 I've been sending out these reflections first thing each
week--one or more quotes plus my thoughts about the intersections and
contradictions. They're archived here back to 2002, and a new one is
posted every Monday morning. Dialogue is still welcome . . .
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Quote #1256 - #SowingandReaping
21 Sep, 2026
SOWING AND REAPING
"It is only the farmer who faithfully plants seeds in the Spring who reaps a harvest in the Autumn."
B.C. Forbes
"Nothing erases the past. There is repentance, there is atonement, and there is forgiveness. That is all, but that is enough."
Ted Chiang
"If a criminal was once a saint and a saint was once a criminal, then who is the criminal and who is the saint?"
Sanchit Gupta
Jewish and Celtic New Year
Fall Solstice
the harvest
back to school
the new theatrical season
all early Autumn
whatever learning we seek
whatever crops we harvest
of whatever we have sown.
Repentance
Atonement
Forgiveness
is not all there is
and is vital
but still not enough--
There is also learning, growing, changing,
doing it differently in the future.
There is also reparations, making good,
making whole.
There is also making something good, creative,
beautiful
transformative
from what has gone wrong.
There is so much more.
There is that careful application of self to tasks
continuing to learn from the world
digging deep to learn more about self
investment of self in ways of being and doing
bringing about deep and fundamental accomplishments
and changes.
And we reap more than we sow
because things grow:
plants and animals and people
projects and ideas
actions and effects that alter further actions
energy and passion that radiate in spokes
momentum that catapults everything forward.
None of that can be successful
without owning our missteps,
and today is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
We cannot carve out different ways of doing
of being
until we can take responsibility for what we have
done and been.
Real responsibility.
Not just feeling bad, or, worse,
feeling sorry for ourselves that we screwed up.
This includes how we benefit
from unearned privilege
and unfair laws,
the complex reality which is our history,
our country
our lives.
We cannot change the past
but we can take responsibility for our part in it
and how we benefit from it.
It is not enough to go to a house of prayer
and ask God for forgiveness.
It is not enough to say
"I am sorry for whatever I might have done that hurt you,"
the traditional generic apology
that doesn't really take responsibility for anything.
This is the time to harvest what you have sown,
take stock,
atone for wrongs,
and start a New Year in the School of Life.
Gut yontif.
Shellen Lubin
September 21, 2026
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