Beyond the Sabbatical
In This Case, Mine
Part of the gap between my last post and this one is explained by a half-time sabbatical that more or less ended at the start of the year. I love that someone inquired about “half time,” apparently presuming this to be midway through my life rather than roughly 50% of my available time. I don’t imagine living to 120. I did like, at my age, slowing down, leaving openings, letting questions hang with me for a while and not trying to answer them too quickly while exploring in some new ways.
Client work that went on hiatus somewhat unexpectedly enabled sabbatical space to start last August. I am grateful for that. I didn’t have to work so hard to make room for different and for less, though I did need to tell my story differently, sense what that felt like and notice how people responded. I caught whiffs of envy. As a proponent of sabbaticals, whether organizationally supported or not, full time or part time, I now am a beneficiary.
One of many experiments from a workshop on printmaking during my sabbatical
What happened? More sleep. More walks, thanks to the new, young dog, Cooper. Less hurriedness. Letting go a bit of some anxiety-tinged questions about the state of the world so that I could let things settle down a bit and get more perspective. I ended up with more time on projects of mine, long-term interests that deserved more attention—and creativity. In that spirit, I came to feel more generative, a bit fresher. More open to what's next, and pressing less to make it happen. And, finally, letting some short-story writing reach completion, enough to give me pleasure and, it turns out, propel me to do more.
As for the project work, I have some things to show for it. With colleague Diana Renner, I have produced a set of self-paced courses with coaching designed into the experience. They are called quests (mostly because the technology holding them is called MyQuest). Any and all of them are useful for those wanting space to step away, reflect … and even renew. Whether in the container of a full or part-time sabbatical or not. I created a set of teasers for them, which I’ll include here. See what they do to you! Or who they make you think might benefit from the course that can be found at quest.meanwhile.studio
I also have been collaborating with colleagues in ways that have energized me. The Meanwhile Studio project I call Emergent Play has led to a fresh platform in development for leadership development facilitators and coaches. It will be in testing over the next few months. The other project is centered on leadership teams and how they can move forward together, inclusive of how decisions are made and agreements formed. This work is set to become more of a community of practice that may be the most important work I end up doing.
In the near term, I will travel in several directions. To New Orleans, to be for the first time in person with people from a client that does amazing work addressing food insecurity across the nation, things and people from which I have a lot to learn. To Chicago, my place of origin, to learn more about what was invisible to me in my youth and that makes for the best kind of education: the life of a city itself. To Oklahoma, to be with family and a part of our shared experience of hope and also loss. To Copenhagen, where I long have wanted to go and to see many colleagues separated by our experience of the Covid pandemic. Later in the year, to the Balkans, a place of beauty and pain and still-murmuring strife.