Letting the Land Lie Fallow - by SC Skillman

Here in the Covid-19 lockdown, we 've all been letting the land lie fallow.

Fallow land lying uncultivated for a period

Six years you shall sow your field... but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of complete rest for the land, a sabbath for the Lord says the writer of Leviticus (25:1-5).

As Rabbi Jonathan Sachs observed, we’ve lived in plenty and ease so long, now we must step back from that.

We’ve sown our fields relentlessly without rest for decades, we’ve harvested and consumed on an enormous scale, and now has come the period of complete rest for our self-gratifying, consumer society.

One day the thought came to me: ‘There’s no need to feel you’re missing out on anything – because there’s nothing going on out there for you to miss out on.’

I admit that many of the things I feel compelled to go out and consume are wonderful things - in the last 12 weeks I would have gone to exhibitions at the British Museum and the Royal Academy and Compton Verney. I would have visited National Trust properties and beautiful gardens, and I may well have attended a play at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre or the Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, and I would probably have visited the local cinema on more than occasion. 

I would have met up with a friend in London and once again frequented that favourite establishment Pizza Express across the road from Shakespeare's Globe Theatre; I would have walked all around Kew Gardens and absorbed all the wonders and delights there. The rail services would have seen my custom, my bank balance would have been reduced by numerous ticket purchases, and I would have purchased a lot of petrol.  These are in many ways good things.  But I haven't been doing them. I've stayed in instead, obeying government instructions to "Stay at home. Protect the NHS. Save lives."

I’ve marvelled at the new sense of community in my road. We’ve shared many things on a new WhatsApp group; we’ve sung hymns on the pavement for Easter Sunday; we’ve waved at each other from our front gardens as we clapped the NHS; we’ve enjoyed second-hand books from an impromptu bookstall set up on the pavement; we’ve chatted to families holding VE day tea parties on their front lawns. This has been a source of joy to me, and to many.

Personally I’ve loved livestreamed services from my own church on You Tube, and Celtic Night Prayers from Tanworth-in-Arden Church on Facebook. I’ve enjoyed weekly choir rehearsals on zoom; taken up painting; rejoiced in the beauty of nature on my daily walks; recorded a video of myself singing the UK blessing, and have started researching a new book.

So I pray the good effects of this lockdown will bring about real change after the virus has disappeared; resulting in a society more open, sharing and thoughtful, and less materialistic; one in which many will have rediscovered their own inner resources, freeing us all from our compulsion to spend all our time consuming and keeping busy.

SC Skillman

psychological, paranormal and mystery

fiction and non-fiction.

My new book Paranormal Warwickshire

will be published by Amberley

on 15h November 2020 

and is on pre-order now.