5 Weeks Out

Things have slowed down a bit and the sabbatical has become more of a concrete reality than an idea. I chose to enter my sabbatical with a bit of a whirlwind to ease the transition. I cooked Thanksgiving dinner with my Mom and had a houseful of guests, went to my Dad's cabin in Blue Ridge, GA for the weekend and then turned around and left for Honolulu. Honolulu followed by a trip to LA to a conference in NYC to a Bat Mitzvah in Cleveland. This was all in the span of 3 and a half weeks.

While I will get to the exciting parts of the journey thus far, I have to remark that what has been surprising is the luxury of the mundane. While keeping myself busy was a good strategy to start, by Cleveland, I thought what was I doing? It made it easier to slow down. Yesterday was hard, a bit of a lonely day. I have spent a great deal of time alone--which is wonderful, but sometimes the solitude can be heavy.

But as for the mundane, I have reacquainted myself with some old things. So far, I have cooked more meals than I have in almost the past 3 years combined. I have to remind myself that I can leisurely wade through the market, exploring the cheeses, testing the produce and allowing people to go ahead of me. Washing dishes by hand can be a meditation of its own. Though I have learned that Madge was wrong, you don't want to soak your hands in Palmolive. And the best part of it is that for more nights than I can remember having, I have slept at least 7 hours. Rediscovering sleep has been a treasure greater than Captain Jack Sparrow's black pearl.

I am reading a wonderful book by Tich Nacht Han called True Love. It is a short guide to connecting the practice of awareness with the spiritual path of loving. It is practical and his frank, terse writing is fresh and often very sweet. He seems very unencumbered, which is refreshing.

I have been spending some time preparing my next journey: Denver. The blizzard hasn't done much for my excitement heading there, but the opportunity to collaborate with friends on some writing ventures is. I am hoping the cold is an incentive for staying indoors and writing for a good long while. One awesome discovery is that a good friend and colleague is only 45 minutes away so he and I are going to try to do some chevruta (partnered) study together. I may convince him to be my ski instructor as well--if not him then his wife.

I will post more regularly now and will begin by catching people up on what I have done and who I have seen especially:

*Bea and Dave and their new(ish) daughter Elana *the Russo/Claman clan and the bat mitzvah *the Human Rights Conference * Hanukkah in Honolulu and the Reform Temple

I will write more soon!

Joshua