In the late 1800s, Harvard introduced sabbaticals. The word, from the Hebrew sabbath, means to take a rest from work. Professors would get a rare block of time every six or seven years that might lead to a publishable paper or book. The idea was to change their routine and take the pressure off so they could focus on one important thing. There were no rules. Each professor designed their own sabbatical based on their interests. Many studied in Europe.
Today, it’s not our jobs but our personal lives that keep us from renewing our minds. The burden is daily life in the kind of places built around ever-multiplying HOAs, athleisure, and strip malls. I was living in one of them. I had built a good life there. It was the kind of place people work toward. The familiar has value, but it wasn’t teaching me anything new. For all the perfect lawns and statement homes, it felt empty. It’s not about money. It’s about what the place asks you to care about. My consciousness was shrinking.
Using the sabbatical model in reverse, I kept the job and changed everything else. I traded a town of 34,000 for one of 9,000. A landscape crisscrossed by highways and chain stores for one with 5 million trees — less manicured, more wild. I swapped living in a mall for living on a mountain.
I’m taking a deliberate step away from that culture and tolerating the discomfort long enough to see what comes from it. I want to see if my spirit responds. It’s intentionally temporary — an adventure until I decide otherwise.
This is not a break from my life. I’m taking responsibility for my life. Not better or worse. Just mine. It’s my life, shaped to fit my vision and match my callings.
With my anchors of twenty years gone, my environment is wholly different, and my identity more elastic. I am shaping my life instead of being dragged along by it. My consciousness has room to stretch out. I can sleep and think straight. I can breathe easy and hear my maker.
This self-directed sabbatical isn’t about not working. It’s about not working so hard on things that don’t matter. It’s about not being numbed out by an environment. I’m testing my faith and my patience. As Anne Morrow Lindbergh wrote, “Certain environments, certain modes of life, certain rules of conduct are more conducive to inner and outer harmony than others.”
Changing context doesn’t solve life’s problems. It just makes it visible. So far, after the initial jolt, my nervous system is settling — and I’m ready to begin.
Quote: Because optimal experience depends on the ability to control what happens in consciousness moment by moment, each person has to achieve it on the basis of his own individual efforts and creativity. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Song Accompaniment: Have you ever. Brandi Carlile
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