TED Talk: Unconscious Bias

The Season Called "Fallow Ground"

I tried to find an interesting or exciting photo of a field lying fallow, i.e. fallow ground as it is called.
       I could not find one. I guess that's the point really!
       Some people will struggle with the idea that there is a season for a person "to lie fallow," just as the soil does. I was meeting with someone recently who challenged me and said, "I think you are in a season of fallow ground, Brian."
       He went on to say that the sooner I embrace this season the better I can live in it. I did not like the guy much at that moment, but only because he was right!
       I am indeed in a season in my life of fallow ground, at least inwardly. Before you begin to feel sorry for me, or try to help me "snap out of it," please consider that fallow seasons are necessary and good for growth over the longer term.
       Our example comes from agriculture, about which I know virtually nothing. So I have needed to do some research and speak with people who know about land and cultivating crops.
       Here are some helpful and hopeful ideas for me about this fallow season:

1. Land uses nutrients to help crops grow, and sometimes it takes A LOT of nutrients to get good crops. These seasons of plenty and abundance come with a cost to the soil.
2. When you look at a field that is lying fallow it can appear as if nothing is happening. No crops are growing, no seedlings. Nothing. The field appears unproductive.
3. What is happening on fallow ground is renewal of the soil. Rest. Shabbat. Silence, Quiet. Rebirth.
4. Fallow ground is rarely beautiful or pretty. It's boring, blah, and ugly. Staring at fallow ground in Kansas is good for nothing - except if you have insomnia!
5. Fallow ground still needs tending from the farmer. You have to make sure there are no infestations, no critters burrowing holes in the ground, no damage from severe weather. The farmer is not absent, he is mindful and watching the field;
6. Fields do not lie fallow forever, or that is just a waste of the land. There is a SEASON for this, and the season eventually comes to an end and the land is restored and able to produce a bounty again.

So this is my season. I am sure you can draw the analogies to life from the image of the field. It has been strangely encouraging for me.