KV Goes on Sabbatical

…full of food for the soul.

There are not too many things that I love more than taking a road trip with Ruth.  We’ve spent more than a few hours together over the past 29 years. Still, it always feels like such a precious gift when we have an opportunity to spend some time away from our routine.  We approach each trip with excitement and curiosity which stays with us until those very last few hours of the drive home, when we shift into impatience mixed with a bit of gratitude that we will soon be home.

Our official destination last week was Providence, Rhode Island, where Ruth attended a training. Our true destination was “Re-Connection.” We closed miles between ourselves and old friends and experienced the deep comfort and joy of having friends with whom we share core values that sustain relationships over distance and years.  We explored together, ate good food together, laughed and cried together and re-connected to all of the ways that we nurture each other’s spirits.  We listened to podcasts and had deep conversations about the meaning of life.  We played and we walked in companionable silence along the ocean’s edge. 

As the week unfolded I felt centered and loved and peaceful and strong. It was an amazing and powerful feeling. I want to hold on to that feeling–to reach down and plant myself fully within that space whenever fear sneaks up on me. It is a space in which I fully believe that the power of love can transform the world.

Tomorrow I begin the second month of this three-month sabbatical.  Month two is devoted to developing a daily meditation practice. I’ve been looking for a resource that might help me with this–and miraculously it appeared in a delightful little bookstore in Providence (along with another selection for my speculative fiction project!). In the first chapter of Learning to Meditate, David Fontana describes four levels of thought:  the first level is negative thought based in feelings of anger, fear, sadness, regret and unease; the second level is wasteful thought based in worries and things that might not happen and things outside of our control; the third level is necessary thought that helps us meet our needs and remember important information; and the fourth and highest level is positive thought which encourages peace, harmony, creativity, love and happiness.  The goal of meditation is to free our minds from negative and wasteful thought and devote ourselves to a practice that builds our capacity for positive thought.

I am grateful to have had this experience of a week in which positive thought was so very present. The universe works in truly magical ways!

Thank you to Suzanne and Blair (and Oliver and Ashlin) for taking care of home and Ros, and cats and goats and chickens for us so that we could take this trip.  Thank you to Michael and Katie (and Rhogan and Rand) for giving special care to Addie so that Ruth could even consider leaving town. Thank you Kim and all of the folks at Bayside Pet Emporium for taking good care of Zeke and returning him to us looking spiffy and without any residual trauma.  Thank you Chris and Heidi for driving down from the Cape for a perfectly delightful day of catching up.  Thank you Sue and Diane for re-arranging your schedules so that we could all spend an evening together–it was such fun to share good beer and good flatbread and good conversation with both of you! (and also SO nice to get some pup time!! you should definitely get one!!!)