I am writing this on the last day of my sabbatical. It has been a really great time, and has seemed to go by pretty fast. My last blog was done in the middle of our cruise. Since then, we visited Quebec city and Montreal as the final two ports. Quebec city is a really interesting place. I had been there for a meeting decades ago, and saw some of it then, but we had a really good time walking and touring the old city for a whole day this time. The old city reminds me a lot of old European cities that I see on television. It has a lot of fairly narrow cobblestone type streets and a plethora of small shops, restaurants, galleries, etc. that make for a great walking tour. The various outdoor musicians added to the experience. We first took a bus ride that gave us an overview and some history, then spent several hours walking the streets. It was a thoroughly enjoyable time. The weather was in the 40’s and 50’s, so it was quite a reprieve from Austin heat.
The last port of call, where we debarked, was Montreal. We had never been there before, except for the airport. They have an old city as well, but it didn’t really seem much like Quebec. It was a lot more metropolitan and huge. The old city did not seem much like a place to do a walking tour. We did a bus tour around much of the city. The Notre Dame cathedral was a truly awesome place, but very dark inside. Maybe it doesn’t have a lot of electricity. We also got a great view of the city from Mount Royal (Mont Real). Whereas Quebec was a very quaint and unique place to visit, Montreal was mainly just a big city and didn’t quite live up to our expectations. All in all, the cruise was a really good time, providing both quaint, pastoral settings on the eastern seaboard and quaint, city settings in Quebec. As a plus, all of our travel plans went off without a hitch, even American Airlines!
My sabbatical has been very enjoyable, though different than I expected. Going in, I was expecting that I would have to find things to do. In fact, I was having to find the time to do things. I made the mistake of having a list of 11-12 things to accomplish, or at least kick off, during the 30 days. I finished or started seven of them, so I made some pretty good progress, but at the expense of having a lot of time to simply chill out and reflect. I was able to do some of that, but it was less than I was intending. I was overly ambitious in setting too many goals and expectations of what I could accomplish in 30 days. Part of that was I wanted to get out of town for a while rather than just staying at home for 30 days. We did that, and had a good time doing so on our cruise. Between planning, preparing, traveling and cruising, that took probably 10-11 days, or about a third of the time.
The book that I am reading as part of the sabbatical is called Letting Go by Dr. David Hawkins. To paraphrase the book jacket, the author talks about various ways of surrender that can be done in the midst of everyday life. The idea is to remove inner blocks to happiness, love, joy, success, health, etc.. It’s a rather long and thorough book, and I am almost half way through, so there is more to come. I have found it to be very insightful and explains things in a bit of a different way that sometimes leads to an aha! moment. I highly recommend it to anyone who would like to have a better insight into why they act or react the ways the do in various circumstances.
Looking back, 30 days goes by pretty quickly. Also, a lot can be done/experienced in 30 days! I am very grateful to have had this time to go off in a somewhat different direction that usual. It has been a great and rewarding experience. I wish to thank Kris for coming up with the idea (which originally sounded pretty far out), and the board for approving and endorsing it. People whom I talk with outside the company are all totally floored that a company would do this for its employees. Well, that’s just one more thing that sets up apart from the rest. I feel very blessed to be a part of this company, as I’m sure all of you do as well. I don’t expect to be employed during the next sabbatical opportunity (I should have retired by then). So, this is a bit of a bittersweet signoff. Best of wishes to everyone. I hope you had/have a wonderful sabbatical as well.