I always believe my summer break from teaching will lead to creative productivity. Many years it has, and I have created numerous pieces, and started many more.

This summer was different. I just wasn’t feeling it. It took a lot of effort to even post occasionally here.

In my defense, I did format a book of poetry that I want to publish. Well, mostly format. When uploading books to Amazon, a .pdf file is a good format to use. Unfortunately, editing a .pdf costs money to Adobe, and the editing interface is clunky and the opposite of intuitive.

Maybe I got bogged down in that. Also, if I wasn’t on a trip with Patty, I was working on paving the new walkway in our backyard.

Nevertheless, I still had time to write. But I usually didn’t. After a while, I realized I just needed to let it be. I needed to let my field lie fallow.

If you don’t know, a field lying fallow means keeping some of a farm’s fields bare for a season. What grows naturally is plowed under, its decay feeding the soil. Instead of producing, the field gets to rest. The nutrients that would have been absorbed by crops instead stay in the earth, building up nourishment for the next growing season.

I’m back to work now, but I feel my creative energy restoring itself. My desire to see my poetry book to publication is overcoming my dread of dealing with energy sucking software.

My desire to write here is growing again. It feels good typing this.

Here’s to hoping resting my creativity restores my creative growth.