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,
+ Gideon Heugh, from Darkling: An Advent Journey, 2022
the roots are discovering
their grit.
Fecund: high-yielding; fertile; fruitful; rich.
Fallow: dormant; inactive; idle; slow.