"The earth itself isn't that concerned with not having any tomatoes and then producing some tomatoes." —Rob Bell
The other day, my farmer friends let me have three tomatoes that had too many issues to sell. My new tomatoes are misshapen, have splits from the rain, and definitely would not make it onto your average grocery produce section. The gloriously fresh tomatoes were best described as "funky."
They immediately reminded me of a story I heard a while back from Rob Bell. (Rob wanders. He really gets into the tomato story at about 17 minutes and 55 seconds.)
If you are not up for the full listen, here is the essence:
Tomatoes that are misshapen—that "have issues"—often taste AMAZING.
Tomatoes like this only come around once a year. The tomatoes you get in the grocery store are there year round. But compared to the misshapen ones, they have very little flavor at all.
The long quiet before the funky tomato comes into being is a part of the process.
It can help to remind yourself that nature does not produce glorious tomatoes year round. This can help especially when you are (unrealistically) expecting yourself to create and produce at peak levels all 52 weeks of the year.
This definitely helps me as I look at my own schedule for creativity like producing blog posts and newsletters. You may have noticed that I don't make it every month. I didn't make it in August, in fact.
Of course, I do practice the discipline of sitting down and doing the thing on a regular basis. But sometimes other things take the place. Last month, for example, I was working hard with Beth Prevo to prepare our retreat on November 2nd.
Sometimes I just need rest from writing my own stories or creating other forms of art. Sometimes I need a rest from yoga too. I'm comforted by the idea that this is natural. That I am no better or worse than a tomato plant. Sometimes my Art Words and Yoga might even look misshapen or have splits from the more difficult things I've weathered.
It's my hope that this natural process will lead me to create AMAZING things just like the taste of those tomatoes. And when it doesn't, I suppose those things can go on the compost pile for the next round of creation when the season is right.
I'm pretty sure that will work better for me than the grocery store model where I just keep turning out perfectly symmetrical things that have very little flavor.
I bet that may be true for you and your work in the world too.
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