I was talking to a friend recently about the joys and frustrations of my life as an artist and she used a farming analogy to describe a healthy creative lifestyle goal that I loved. It made me think of  something I read recently in an article about labor movements and unions. It was a quote by Seneca that I really liked so I went and looked it up and scribbled this quote in my journal. 

“The mind must be given relaxation—it will rise improved and sharper after a good break. Just as rich fields must not be forced—for they will quickly lose their fertility if never given a break—so constant work on the anvil will fracture the force of the mind. But it regains its powers if it is set free and relaxed for a while. Constant work gives rise to a certain kind of dullness and feebleness in the rational soul.” —Seneca

There are seasons for planting and seasons for harvesting! It’s so easy to get caught up with marketing and branding and competing out here in these art fields that it’s easy forget to honor the seasons and periods of rest after harvests. We just keep digging and planting and expecting growth. And that just isn’t how it works—not for me anyway. Maybe others can do it but I start to feel drained and sapped of energy without breaks. Growth cycles require periods of dormancy and we seem to have forgotten how to do that! The environment out here in social media land and in crazy capitalist America isn’t conducive to healthy farming—er—or art making practices. Not judging anyone else’s choices. Just observing and acknowledging.

I’ve been overworking my metaphorical fields and neglecting the soil (my mind and body) these past couple of years and I need time to let the land lie fallow. I need the growing space left unseeded for a little with no plowing and harrowing for a while. A field that isn’t given a break, where crops are not rotated, according to Seneca, lose fertility—so I am taking a break! That doesn’t mean I am quitting anything or giving up anything. It means the opposite. It means I am taking care of myself! I’ve taken several breaks from social media over the past few months and have been amazed and pleased with how much more relaxed I have felt. I started spending more time in the woods again. I ignored the clock and calendar. I also read paper books (no screens) and wrote essays by hand—just for me. I cleaned house—and didn’t hate it. I cooked and napped and went to bed early a few nights just because I could. I was seed gathering and soil building! I was being a good farmer!

I have to make some decisions about how I want to use my time and spend a little time deciding what I want to plant next. In other words, I am spending a lot of time thinking about what I want my creative practice to look like moving forward.