A fruitful rest

A fruitful rest?

Somehow this tips on its head all our culture tries to tell us.

That we earn fruitfulness, that it only comes through striving.

And rest is a means to an end.

But what if we’ve misunderstood the very nature of life?

THE FECUND FALLOW

And what if all this waiting;
this trembling body of longing;
this channel of sap’s quiet idling;
what if it is here–
not in the crowded upthrusts,
but in the un-looked-for solitudes,
in the mist that makes doubtful the path–
that life at last discovers itself?
What if the fallow has all along been fecund?

Beneath the cold soil,
the roots are discovering
their grit.

+ Gideon Heugh, from Darkling: An Advent Journey, 2022

Fecund: high-yielding; fertile; fruitful; rich.
Fallow: dormant; inactive; idle; slow.