If you’re looking for ways to slow down and savor your free time, check in every Friday (or so) for the forthcoming series:  55 BreakAway BreakThroughs (BABT).  We’ll offer one simple, symbolic suggestion that might bring enjoyment or inspiration—and get you one step closer to your radical Sabbatical. 

BABT1:  Sunday Supper…with 11 possible courses of action

• Have friends and family over, and make everyone collaborate in the kitchen.
• Join hands before the feast and sing, pray, or read something stimulating. 
• Take yourself out for a nice, solo dinner; bring a journal and capture some thoughts. 
• Eat early, then watch a meaningful movie, documentary, or travel program. 
• Go to an exotic ethnic restaurant and neighborhood; shop or wander before or after. 
• Call a long-lost acquaintance; better yet, write them a letter by hand and send it snail. 
• Create the healthiest meal possible that still tastes great and feels indulgent. 
• Cook up a big batch for leftovers; spend less time cooking next week. 
• After dinner, play music or games; make art or a decadent dessert (big banana split?). 
• Get out your BreakAway journal and jot down some ideas about where, when, and how. 
• Leave the kitchen (and whole house?) clean, organized, and ready to start the week fresh. 

Do you have any favorite Sunday evening rituals–or BreakThrough tips to share?  Leave a comment please!

Some of my more devout readers have been saying, “Hey, Horse:  How come you don’t write much personal, emo-navel-gazing stuff lately, like you did before your BreakAway and while you were in the islands?”  Good question.  Maybe the answer is:  None of your business!

But that’s not nice, nor is life so simple.  So let’s dig deeper for 11 tidbits–and TakeAways–about my spiritual (?) post-Sabbatical life of late–an appropriate activity for my favorite day of the year, the Summer So(u)lstice.

• Since coming back from the islands, life has resumed its kid-centric crazy-busy ways; this is my brilliant, yet often banal life, and I know many folks need not hear about it.
• My feelings about that life and sked?  On good days (and seasons), it’s the bomb.  On bad days (and seasons), it’s the other bomb—that threatens to explode me, inside out. 
• About BreakAways, before:  The most challenging yet motivating time is the prep and planning; one lives, reacts, and writes from the gut.
• About BreakAways, during:  That’s the fun part—full of inspiration and life-changing moments (that may or may not matter in a matter of months). 
• About BreakAways, after:  Sorry, it can suck.  Finding the new balance, leaving the thrills and hopes, getting a new (old) groove back; but YES, it’s so worth it.
• About BreakAways, much after:  So now I’ve been back 4.5 months; life is good and summer is bliss, and somehow the Island BreakAway lives on inside like a happy secret. 
• BreakAway TakeAway #1:  Time with kids while they’re still kids is the best gift around me right now, and I intend to bask and glow and grow in it. 
• BreakAway TakeAway #2:  Sitting alone staring at water still soothes the soul. 
• BreakAway TakeAway #3:  When I’m feeling dejected, I remember Islanders I got to know who, it seems, never let much get them down, and feel better. 
• BreakAway TakeAway #4:  Everything is temporary; that’s not always welcome news, but does much to force faith in the flow of life—or else what? 
• BreakAway TakeAway #5:  The past plays a big role in who we are—so packing your years with exciting escapades can be a great way to lead a rich inner life. 

This thoughtful commentary puts a nice philosophical spin on the rough time college grads are having finding good work.  It’s a bummer, I know:  Unemployment was around 10% when I graduated in 1983.  But now as then, life goes on.  And while few of us got career starts ASAP, we all survived and, frankly, may have had more fun.  And Zen. 

Writer Brian Till points out that less than 20% are finding jobs now, down from 51% in 2007.  The flip side?  Applications for Teach for America and the Peace Corps are way up.  And young people can consider options (and careers) for criteria other than fast-tracked financial success…

As Till sums it up,

It has given them the unapologetic opportunity to take on anything available without shame or the imperative that it be part of a broader, meticulously mapped future. For many, I contend, it might be a blessing in disguise, even a liberation.”

That’s BreakAway thinking.  Go for a life- (and world-) changing experience while you can.  The cube farm will wait. 

Gretchen Rubin is generating quite the buzz with her “Happiness Project.”  And in this HuffPost blogpost, she asserts that reliving happy memories from the past is one small secret that happy people share.  I so agree.  And remind you that taking a BreakAway is a sure way to ensure that your past is packed with joyful experiences worth revisiting.

Here are a few Rubin blog quotes + a comment…

Philosophers and scientists agree: if there is one element that is the key to happiness, it’s having strong relationships with other people.” 

• True that, and going somewhere new allows you to meet all kinds of new people—and cut straight to honest chat; how cool to have friends from all over the world. 

Remembering happy times in the past is a great way to boost happiness in the present.” 

• Life can become a busy grind and the days can blur; just stepping away from the grindstone makes those times stand out. 

I keep a one-sentence journal.” 

• Indeed, one essential Sabbatical Suggestion is to log your BreakAway.  You pay better attention, and have something to spark the memory.  Why not live that way every day?  

Sure, a BreakAway pushes you into the Here and Now in a way that the daily routine can’t match.  But when it’s over—and you’ve had to go home again—you remember that day surfing the wave, baking the bread, or hiking the mountain forever.  Those things change you, and the rich reminiscences only appreciate over time.  And that’s a happy thought indeed.

When your BreakAway takes you far from your native habitat, some remarkable things happen:  Your senses re-awaken. You notice things. And you find grinspiration in the strangest of places. 

Having worked as a namesmith, I love that Caribbeans name just about everything—boats, cars, bars, buses—with clever and empowering monikers.  Here are my fave five…

A private landing assures much untouched booty.

Focusing on fatherhood may be more natural and convenient when we’ve stepped away from our routines and out of (most) ruts. And for that, I’m grateful! Pursuing mutual passions like being on/in water and chasing nature also helps. Here was our strategy today. Perhaps when we’re back home again, we can find the same groove during fishing mornings, baseball afternoons, and bowling nights.

• Rent a 2-person kayak for a ½-day excursion.
• Pile on snorkel gear, lunch, bevvies, camera.
• Relax for a while; let Boy wander off, climb rocks, and collect sea treasures.

AllBoy seeks sea treasures on private beach.

• Paddle against the wind to a private beach cars can’t reach.
• Snorkel one hour around a steep peninsula through gi-normous swells.
• Return to beach, exhausted, for enthusiastic chat and lunch about ocean life.
• Search seashore for shells, coral, crab carcasses, and cool stuff.
• Take pictures and select a few perfect ones for Mom and Sis.
• Throw the rest back into the deep.

Corals, conchs, crab carcasses, critters: Incredible!

• Eat a candy bar and gather up the gear.
• Kayak back, watching for jumping fish, distant sailboats, and lobster traps.
• Let wind and waves carry you home while sun slips behind mountain.

Untraditional Christmas cactus in full bloom.

“Traditional” does not describe this Christmas Day. But meaningful? Oh yes. Going somewhere new forces you to see things in a new way, while also making memories more alive and vivid.  Folks not here—family and friends—seem closer. Christmas is a feeling. A hope. A light in the dark. 

The stars are brighter down here. You just can’t stop yourself from staring at them. Could wise men 2,000 years ago have seen something up there? Why not? What’s left if you don’t believe in something? Faith is never blind. Without it, I wouldn’t be here.  On this BreakAway.  On this island.  

On the more secular side of things, Santa paid a visit and left some modest booty for giddy kids. My family spent a glorious day on the beach, living in the light. The feast made us all happy as kings. And steel drum bands from V.I. schools proudly strutted their Christmas-carol stuff on public TV.

I opened not one gift. And I couldn’t ask for anything more.

Peace.

In the old days, people were allowed to use a lot of commas, and they wrote some pretty cool stuff, especially this dude, who also wrote that bit about history repeating itself, but we’ll not feature that here, as we are not a HISTORY site, but rather, a BREAKAWAY site.  

“A string of excited, fugitive, miscellaneous pleasures is not happiness; happiness resides in imaginative reflection and judgment, when the picture of one’s life, or of human life, as it truly has been or is, satisfies the will, and is gladly accepted.”

Thanks to George Santayana, no relation to Carlos, 1863-1952, Spanish-born philosopher, essayist, and poet.  

Is there any doubt that he practiced silence?  Took Sabbaticals?  Found what he was looking for?  Had a good time?  Wish he were here…

“Our culture is suffering from an overdose of action and a shortage of contemplation. I consider contemplation a basic need; you even see it in animals. Just think about dogs and cats. You often see them staring off into space. I think that’s their way of meditating, their way of recharging their batteries. We need to have that too. But we deny this basic, psychological need—as if an entire society were to forget to go to the bathroom. That’s serious!”

Piero Ferrucci, Italian psychiatrist, in ODE Magazine, “The Silence Issue,” July/August 2008

I have a lot to say about this idea. But for now, perhaps it’s best if I stay quiet.