The End of my Sabbatical

So today I'm going to discuss two sabbaticals.

1) My sabbatical from writing.

Apparently I haven't posted here (or anywhere really) since 2014. That. Has. To. End. I'd offer a recap,  but really, who wants to read THAT long thing. Let's just leave it at "life has happened." I've been spending a lot of time working on learning to care in better ways for myself, and I've taken a lot of time to consider my life path related to my health, home, hobbies, and career....which leads me to ...

2) My sabbatical from work.

One of the greatest gifts of being a librarian with faculty status at a large university is that, once I receive tenure, I have the opportunity to take up to a year of sabbatical leave once every six years. This year, I took my first leave of SEVEN MONTHS, which is coming to a close on January 31. And, having had the experience of a sea of time and space in which to exist without many parameters, I can tell you confidently that I WILL do this again every chance I get.

So what have I been up to?

Dabbling in yoga, knitting, drinking copious amounts of coffee, buying a house, moving, selling a house, decorating a house, spending time with friends, binge watching Gilmore Girls, making soup, volunteering for a local charity, having more lunches with B, taking days off with B, nursing sick kids (this cycles NEVER ends, I swear!), staying up late, keeping my pajamas on as long as I want in the morning...have I mentioned drinking copious amounts of coffee?

OH, and also, I taught an online course during 5 of the 7 months of my leave (You can't just loaf around all the time - you do have to have something to show for the time away from your regular duties). Anyhow, it was a course that I co-authored for the College of Liberal Arts, and that guides students with various learning experiences (work, internships, assistantships, military experience, entrepreneurial experience, etc.) through the process of translating those experiences into the academic context, the better to (hopefully) attain academic credit for those experiences. Why was I involved? Research (aka the Library) was identified early on as an essential piece of the puzzle when it comes to contextualizing experience. The collaboration was natural. And, in short, I am eternally grateful to have been able to take the time to do this. It was an experience that changed my perspective, changed my life, changed my goals. It was an experience that, in essence, did exactly what sabbatical is supposed to do in my opinion.

So now I write. And now I process. And now I return to "work." What I hope - and indeed intend - for myself is that I carry with me the feeling of space in my life. Space to LOVE, space to GROW, space to REFLECT, space to LIVE.

May we see more of one another soon.