Feeling
Fallow
“Accept
the fallow period as graciously as you can, and get ready for a quantum leap in
creativity or consciousness.”
Sarah
Ban Breathnach
Several
people have told me that they are going through a period of stagnation. They feel
unmotivated to do anything. I, too, have experienced that fallow feeling—a time
when no new ideas present themselves, nothing seems interesting or exciting.
And, I must admit, I’m spending more time lying on the couch staring into space
than I used to. The isolation of the pandemic has slowed us down significantly,
and because we aren’t rushing around like a mound full of disturbed ants, we
have more time on our hands.
There
is something distressing about fallow time to most of us. We think we’re sick
or depressed or, God-forbid, lazy. It would never be that we have simply slowed
down and become a little less manic and a little more thoughtful. We are so “et-up”
with the Puritan work ethic, that we don’t even recognize relaxation unless we’re
sitting on a beach with a beer in our hand.
I remember my
Grandfather, Pop Richardson, this time of year. When he got home from work, he walked
out to the edge of his garden and just stood there in his summer bowler hat and
white cotton dress shirt. He stared out at the growing things, and up at the birds,
and the trees, and the sky. For fifteen or twenty minutes he just silently gazed into space. You’d have thought he was waiting for the second coming or
something. As a kid, I thought it strange, but now I recognize it as a time of
organizing thoughts, processing his day, and clearing his brain. We don’t do
enough of that these days. We just make a mad dash to the next thing. No wonder
we’re fallow. We’re exhausted.
As
uncomfortable as this time of inertia is for most of us, and as heavy as we
feel, I suspect there is reason beyond our own body/mind at play. We may be
holding the ground during this crazy, chaotic time. Unknown to us, we may be
collectively balancing others who are working to change the injustices so
prevalent in America today. We, who are staying at home, may be acting as a
lightening-rod for grounding human energy. Call me crazy, but I don’t believe that
we are always aware of the work being done by the world-soul. We can only see the big
picture of its actions in our collective rear-view mirror.
Be
patient with your fallow time. Keep doing the things you do, make the effort
even when you feel heavy and slow. This too shall pass, and we will sort out the
damage and rebuild anew when it’s over. Be on the look-out for that leap in
creativity and consciousness. It’s on the horizon.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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