I have recently made a firm decision to take a writing sabbatical year beginning in July 2014, when the Last Chapter Meeting of a religious community I have been working with comes to an end. It will be a year, and I will stay here at SoulWinds, except
for my family trips to NL in late fall and spring.
When I tell people this sabbatical idea, I am surprised by how often I am asked "where will you go? (meaning a program of some sort) or "will you take a trip?" The assumption that Sabbatical automatically
means taking part in a program, or traveling somewhere new shocks me. It belies the name "sabbatical"; sabbath, stopping for reflection.
That is my dearest longing: to stop traveling, working and doing; to steep myself every day in the natural world;
to deepen contemplation and to write and paint...but all here, all at SoulWinds. I don't want a new place, but a deeper relationship with where I am. Here, I not only have the river and the forest, and my own small hermitage
on the edge of the property, but my supportive companion Joan, and my heart companions MaChree and Mahti. Also my books and resources.
What are we all searching for, doing and going and looking...but not a lot of finding, from what I observe? I intend
a year of finding, deep inside, how to surrender to who I am and why I am here. I need go nowhere to do that.