fall 2023 sabbatical

14 Aug 2023

starting in mid-september, i am taking 4 weeks off!

the details:

• who: lil ‘ole me.
• what: Dickinsons Reach Homesteading Residency
• when: approximately 12 sept - 15 oct
• where: photos round 1 and round 2
• why: because i wanted to do this since 2017. because i am deserving of rest for no reason other than being human. because i am deeply desiring to deepen my relationship to land. because i am curious, somatically, about the ways my ancestral wounding and the ancestral wounding of people native to this land relate.

if you’re reading this before 12 sept 2023, chances are either i sent it to you directly, you clicked on it in my work email signature, or you got it from my newsletter. in any case, here’s a tiny bit more of my thinking about this.

i am REALLY excited and a little terrified to spend 4 weeks in the woods, mostly by myself! i have been actively planning to do this for 3 years running and it took all 3 years to learn my way into how to do it. first year i realized it was actually quite expensive to take 4 weeks off and i didn’t have enough money to do it. second year i had my money situation right but i had projects that i feared wouldn’t survive without me. this year, i think i’ve got both of those figured out. (well, the latter maybe actually not but i’m gonna do it anyways).

anywho, what i really wanna say in this blog post is these 2 things: i feel hella privileged to be able to do it and i hope that doing this makes it more possible for other folks do this specific thing or things like it.

one other thing i wanted to share was that my peer coach supported me to think through some options for what i could do while up there and they encouraged me to not actually plan it all out. to have a list of ideas and be ready for each of them, but to wait and see how i feel. now, if you know me, you know planning is something i do basically in my sleep (for those of you who are astrologically inclined, my moon and south node are both in virgo and my saturn and uranus are in capricorn). so the idea of taking an entire month and not planning it is truly out of this world for me. but i’m gonna do it! i hope i don’t implode.

in case you’re curious the list is:

• rest
• reading
  • boiling energy
  • diary of a runaway slave
  • pedagogy of freedom
  • reveille for radicals
  • relational mindfulness
  • bury my heart at wounded knee
  • lay bare the heart
• wild gather: seeds of herbalism self-study course (from my friend, mandana)
• writing
  • finishing my 1st book
  • starting my 2nd book (about uncling)
  • ideating my 3rd book (temporary title: “there is no over there”)
  • whatever comes up
• creative projects
  • photography
  • drawing
  • other mediums TBD

haha ok i keep thinking i’m done writing this post and then another thing i want to say about this drops in. but it’s past my bedtime so i’ll end with this one last thought: i have only in the last few weeks started to call this sabbatical. colloquially, that term feels too big for what i’m doing. but when i think about the torah roots i think it totally applies.

anywho, can’t wait to talk to yall on the other side… if i’m even speaking anymore lol.

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words / writing / post-processing
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