Hello friend,

It can be hard to pinpoint the moment a healthy habit turns into a rut. Eating the same protein kale shake for breakfast every morning is a good thing, right? 

For sensitive types like you and me, the line between healthy habit and rut feels tightrope thin and tightrope important.

When you’re up on the tightrope it’s important to remember: Some rut is natural.  We can’t expect the weather to remain the same every single day, and we can’t expect to feel equally stimulated every day of our lives. Transitions happen in the city just like they do on the farm: sometimes the field needs to be fallow.

As I’ve moved through my job roles in the past few years, I’ve learned to accept rut times as a part of the cycle of learning. I don’t relish mental stuckness anymore than anyone else, but accepting that these times will happen, then pass, has forced me to look at them differently. 

I’ve learned that stuck feelings often precede a new breakthrough, or growth. The lands lie fallow for a reason.  

Instead of thinking ruts need to be avoided at all costs, I’ve learned to see them as signposts of what’s coming. Chaos pushes me to seek out structure. Too much structure means I need to loosen the reigns. And a rut is a sign of spring just waiting in the wings.

Plow on, fellow farmers,