Author: mark.france

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.

As I write this on Thursday, we have been at sea since Saturday evening. Both time and internet time are at a premium on the cruise, so I’m writing this on a sea day. We flew into Boston on Friday with the intention of doing a private car tour of Boston on Saturday morning before boarding the ship. A day or so before, the tour company canceled our Boston tour because of a car being in the shop (!). This is the sabbatical of the cancellation. We are on this cruise because our pilgrimage to Italy was canceled by the tour company (sigh). We also had one of our scheduled shore excursions canceled (after we had boarded the bus) due to bus mechanical problems, but were able to take an alternate tour that was fun. I’m taking the approach that all these cancellations are because we were not meant to do that thing at that time for some reason. Nothing to be gained by being upset.

Our cruise began in Boston and ends in Montreal. So far, we have been to Bar Harbor, Maine, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Sydney, Nova Scotia and Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island (famous for Anne of Green Gables). Each of those places has been somewhat different, and we have enjoyed them all. We have never been farther northeast than Massachusetts, so it’s a new experience for us, and a visit to places we will probably never see again. Other than Halifax, which is a larger seaport, the stops have been quaint and idyllic places where the pace of life is slower than what we are used to. It’s interesting to imagine what life would be like there, but being on a cruise ship timetable does not really lead to experiencing the slower pace of things. Still, we have chosen excursions and time in port so that we were not under any particular time crunch. The weather has been warm, but I still cannot help but think of the bitter cold that is in place here for up to six months of the year, and marvel at the fact that people choose to live here. The sea water even freezes in some of the bays. It’s great in the summer, though! As much as the heat in Texas can be bothersome, I’m thankful that we don’t experience the bone chilling cold that is a fact of life in these parts.

It’s pretty chilly cruising the St. Lawrence Seaway right now, so we are not spending any time at the pool. This is a small cruise ship, and we are not finding much to do on our “day off”. It’s a good time for reading, writing and reflection. We are in Quebec city tomorrow and land in Montreal on Saturday morning. Both of those will be quite different experiences from what we have seen on the first part of the cruise. The Quebec old city is very European in feel (been there once before), and Montreal has an old city with a similar flavor. So, we are looking forward to seeing both of those. We return home Saturday evening, and will be happy to experience being in a bedroom that’s probably three times the size of our cruise cabin!

I’m still “working” toward getting to the point where things slow down for me. Maybe “working” is the problem. I’ve already discovered that having an extensive list of things to try to accomplish while on sabbatical is not a good idea. Yet, the list is there and I’m “working” on it. There’s that word again. I do feel like I have had the physical rest and rejuvenation part, just not as much on the mental part. This weekend we leave for a cruise from Boston to Montreal. This will take me away from my list and from most other distractions (e.g. grandkids), so I’m hoping for and expecting some mental relaxation.

Last week I did a service project at the St. Vincent de Paul service center. This center serves the homeless, and currently serves refugees from hurricane Harvey. My expectation going in was that I would be working in the intake area for homeless. It turned out that what they really needed me to do was help stock the food pantry because of all the donations of food for the refugees by the local parishes. So, I spent a few hours a day moving food items from a shopping cart to the pantry shelves. This was not what I was intending to do for a service project, but, hey, service is not about me. As you might expect, this was a little bit tedious and boring, so I had to keep telling myself that what I was doing was benefitting people less fortunate than me in their life situations. Since the food donations actually exceeded the available shelf space (eventually), there was a little bit of creativity involved in figuring out how to arrange each of the different areas of the pantry to hold more food. That helped with the boredom part. It would be a stretch to say that I felt incredibly fulfilled by this service work, but I do see it as service work helping those who need help. In that respect I feel a sense of fulfillment.

This Friday we are off to Boston, and I’m looking forward to a further change of pace and some true relaxation.

Being a sabbatical “veteran” I had some idea of what to expect from the first week. Last time it took me about a week or so to get my mind to slow down to a more relaxed and even contemplative state. I told myself that, knowing that, I would see if I couldn’t speed up the relaxation process this time. Didn’t happen. My first week seemed to be as hectic as any other week. I found myself wondering how I ever have time to work full time. Of course, seven years ago I didn’t have four grandchildren. That makes a big difference in how my time is spent.

I entered my sabbatical with a list of twelve things I wanted to accomplish during that time (probably a mistake). These are things that have kind of been on the back burner awaiting “a round tuit”. You know, I’ll do that when I get around to it. So far, I have only partially done two of them. So, I think I’ve adjusted my expectations. I’ve decided I won’t put pressure on myself to get a certain number done, just what naturally flows. In the second week I have a service project at the St. Vincent de Paul service center. This will be a good change of pace, but does cut into time available to do things on my list. I’m already thinking I could use two sabbaticals.