Before Planting…
…first return to Bare Ground
June 6, 2010. A few weeks ago, this bare patch of ground was filled with weeds up to my thighs. Today we’re preparing to plant some seeds. Tomorrow we’ll water, and with a little bit of conscious gardening over the next few months will harvest an abundance of nourishing food from this little patch of bare soil.
Yes, the weeds will return…and if we don’t keep them cleared almost daily, they may even choke out the new seedlings. So we’ll patiently pull and till the soil while waiting for the new seeds to take root, to grow into strong plants, and finally to bear fruit (& vegis)!
This spring I’ve been pulling a lot of weeds from my inner garden too. My year started with such a flood of creative inspiration and readiness to plant myself fully in service. Then all of a sudden I was drowning in too much…too fast…a whirlpool that took me down down down into a dark hole that I couldn’t seem to escape.
So I did what any good swimmer is trained to do: I surrendered to the flow.
(3 week flow break…it’s now June 25!)
It’s not easy to admit, or even to find a way back into a post that is partly written, but here I am to finish by simply revealing that Returning to Bare Ground is not a simple thing. While I was in the middle of it all…stuck in the mud…it wasn’t so pretty (it may seem like I’m mixing metaphors, but mud IS a mixture of both dirt & water! 
Now that I’ve cleared the most distracting weeds, I’m quite sure that I’m being returned to the Bare Ground of Simple Being for a reason. (Turns out my hormones & thyroid were causing a significant part of the muckiness, but even when physically triggered, the mental-emotional clearing always feels good…once it’s done)
So…I’m taking a “Simplification Sabbatical” this summer! I’ve decided to give myself over to this deep yearning to simplify, to nourish myself & my significant relationships, to spend time listening to God, to allow all actions to blossom from a place of enthusiasm and clarity. It will have a few guidelines, a few possibilities, and mostly open space to RENEW & RE-CREATE. I may (or may not) write as I go, and at the moment I’m leaning toward writing. It seems many of us are being pulled to simplify, and perhaps sharing my journey might help someone else gain perspective.
And now I’m going to close this post that has taken longer than anything I’ve ever written. But then our garden took longer to plant this year than ever before too!
P.S. In spite of several family emergencies and a bunch of rainstorms, the garden is finally planted. It’s great to see those seeds turning into vibrant plants. I’m sure some of the seeds God is planting in this new bare ground in ME will be sprouting soon. Stay tuned for one of those to blossom forth this next month in celebration of my coming birthday!