Helloooooo there, my friend! I’m baaaaack!
How I HOPE you are WELL!
And, how happy I am – to my core! – to be tiptoeing into your inbox after these months of pause.
My Sabbatical, which kicked off in November and wrapped up in April was so SO AHmazing: Deep, rich, and truly beyond what I could have dreamed up or imagined. Truth be told, it’s gonna take a bit to allow the richness of what I experienced to sink in and be able to share more fully with some stories of the expansiveness of the season.
A nudge: Think of a trip that you’ve gone on that was so intense, that even as you “arrived home,” you knew it would take some time to really “unpack” all that you saw, learned, and experienced. (Me too.)
I was in awe of the ways in which the sabbatical toolkit I crafted was an ample container for both the unanticipated and anticipated twists and turns of the journey.
I’ll share Sabbatical glimpses here and there in the days to come – but, I’m embracing “bistari” (that Nepali word I love so much for “slowly“) when it comes to the timing and extensiveness of sharing stories from this sacred season.
Below is an attempt at one such glimpse: A sketch – called “Sabbatical Seeds” from the pages of my journal; to the right is a list of a few of the many seeds I’ve sensed have been planted.
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Midway through my note of “Hello-and-how-I’ve-missed-you!” – I’d like to share a PoP (Place of Pause), followed by a poetry-blessing from a long-time and beloved soul sister, Jan Richardson.
BE Still. Surrender.
Here we are, again.
At a place of pause.
At a place of being,
of new beginnings, perhaps.
No need to do or think about one thing.
Not any to-do’s or need to resolve the past.
Set aside anything other than resting, being,
breathing, and
opening.
Ahh.
.
.
.
Today, a blessing just for YOU that I hope meets you right where you are on your journey today.
DRAWING NEAR
It is difficult to see it from here, I know,
but trust me when I say
this blessing is inscribed on the horizon.
Is written on that far point you can hardly see.
Is etched into a landscape whose contours
you cannot know from here.
All you know is that it calls you,
draws you, pulls you toward
what you have perceived only in pieces,
in fragments that came to you
in dreaming or in prayer.
I cannot account for how, as you draw near,
the blessing embedded in the horizon
begins to blossom
upon the soles of your feet,
shimmers in your two hands.
It is one of the mysteries of the road,
how the blessing you have traveled toward,
waited for, ached for suddenly appears,
as if it had been with you all this time,
as if it simply needed to know
how far you were willing to walk
to find the lines that were traced upon you
before the day you were born.
-Jan Richardson
© Jan Richardson, janrichardson.com
I am abuzz with expectation for the days to come, and rooted in quiet trust that it will all unfold just in time, as it should be. Next week, I’ll share more about our ongoing community Seeds Giving Fund partnership with trusted friends ’round the world who are making a mighty difference in their own communities. (For a sneak peek, take a look: School-Based Rescue Center in Kenya.)
If you feel like pinging me back, I’d love to hear how you BE these days.
You are loved.
You belong.
We belong to each other.
Let’s standTALL, together, and light up the world!
xo, -Sarah Davison-Tracy, Seeds of Exchange
