Farmers know the importance of letting fields rest. It is a restorative process in agriculture, one that allows soil to regenerate and so be ready to support the next crop. In our busy, twenty-first century lives, we often forget to permit ourselves to lie fallow, to die to the ego-driven energies that prevent wool gathering and dreaming into stories other than our own.
Spent is a lovely Old English word meaning “having been used and unable to be used again.” In our technologically driven lives, we are too frequently out of touch with feeling spent. We say “I haven’t the bandwidth right now,” or “I’ll get to that tomorrow.” We binge watch in what we call our spare time. Or we socialize with friends. Sometimes we go on yoga retreats or vacations that have a spiritual focus and we return ready to resume the lives we lived before our time away. Yet we often feel our time away from work does little to rejuvenate.
Knowing we are spent, knowing that to lie fallow for a time offers something other than a break from routine, is life changing. In this conscious death-rebirth process, we open to something new rather than resume the same routines and patterns. To lie fallow is an act of creativity, a conscious choice to empty, to die to old ways, to regenerate new possibilities. To lie fallow is to open to the mystery of winds bringing surprising seeds of change and to Changing Woman herself.
To lie fallow means that when we grow a new possibility, we grow this in new soil, in fresh water, in clean air. To lie fallow is to trust the process of renewal, to release all expectations, to die to what has been and even to what is, and to open to what may be. To lie fallow invites a partnership with the Universe that we may never have dreamed of, to begin a project beyond the ‘out-of-left-field’ sensations familiar to brainstorming and conventional partnering. To lie fallow is to trust that dying to the ego-driven self will only expand our creativity, our joy, our sense of purpose.
To lie fallow is a beautiful experience that shapes itself to the needs and resources of each individual. To lie fallow is to suddenly grow wondrous harmonies and beauty. To lie fallow is to be grown and to grow, over and over and over again.
Until next time,
Jane