Allowing rest.

Fallow Ground

“Let mystery have its place in you; do not be always turning up your whole soil with the plowshare of self-examination but leave a little fallow corner in your heart ready for any seeds the winds may bring...”

Henri Frederic Amiel

The concept of fallow ground is that every few years, you either allow the ground go without planting, or rotate crops because different plants enrich the soil in different ways. One of the problems with allowing ground to lie fallow for a year or two is that any weed seeds that are in it will have an opportunity to sprout and grow; then you have thistle and thorn and other unhappy guests. Any good cultivator removes the weeds first and perhaps covers the ground with something to discourage weeds from growing. In a small garden, sheets of black plastic, or better still, biodegradable newspaper, work well, but in larger gardens planting a winter grass or a grain that can be plowed under is a better option. Planting the same crop year after year in the same plot of ground depletes the soil and gives pests an opportunity to proliferate.

Fallow ground also has its place in life. In fact, it cannot be avoided. We must rest and regenerate in order to function well. If we do not plan such time into our schedule, our bodies will take steps to ensure it by producing symptoms that force us to stop and rest. Fallow ground also occurs regularly in ones creative life. We have periods when we simply are not inspired, or cannot generate ideas that motivate us to action. We can push through these times and force ourselves to be productive anyway, but usually what we produce is equally uninspired. Or, we can allow the period of quietude to be, we can “let mystery have is place in us” and wait. We can do other things. I find that doing “mindless” things like house cleaning, or rearranging the furniture, or organizing the books on a shelf, are great ways of lying fallow and allowing whatever seeds the wind may bring to find a place in my heart. Sometimes, when I'm working away at something “non-creative” an idea will drop into my mind out of the blue. Or I'll see an image that appeals to me. Then inspiration kicks back in and I'm off to the races.

I wonder whether you have fallow periods in your life. How do you handle them? Do you allow the winds to blow in new seeds, or do you keep right on planting the same old crop?

                                                          In the Spirit,

                                                                Jane