Posts Tagged ‘Sabbatical’
Lessons Learned in 2009
Tuesday, December 29th, 2009
I spent this week rereading all the blogs I posted this year. Each one felt like a personal recipe for living, learning, & loving. Each blog held a nugget of hope, a spark of light, & moments of absolute love. I have put together some of the best quotes from my blogs of 2009. May they give you the hope, light, & love that is already awakening in every way.
“Starting over means we can release the past without judgment and move forward without baggage.”
“Forgiveness is not an act; it’s a process. In order to forgive, there must be a journey of going to the place of healing. It’s coming to a place and resting – just resting.”
“The question then becomes, are we willing to practice and share peace with one another? It starts with each person being peace. We can then see peace in each other. Each of us can be the peace story.”
“Do it afraid. Whatever the ‘it’ is, do it, live it, breathe it…Do it anyway. Do it despite yourself.”
“The phrase “Truth Be Told, I Choose You” represented the grandest invitation to life. This is the experience of totality – the gift of fully inviting another person on your life’s journey.”
“When I am open, the world is open, when I am grateful, the world is grateful.”
“I am the one I have been waiting for. The teacher I have been waiting for is me.”
“How are we prisoners to our own minds and project it out to the world? Freedom starts with each one of us. Step forward for yourself and for another.”
“Here was an opportunity to live in harmony with the way things were. Now was my chance to ask myself how I am unconscious in the world.”
“How much is mind chatter costing you? Stillness is free.”
“Imagine taking a planned break to clear yourself of all distractions. Perhaps we are not ready or able to take a year off, but what if we could actually plan in our calendar a sabbatical to generate new ideas, listen to our inner creative voice, and appreciate our work as a calling.”
“As we prepare for a season of “Peace on Earth”, may each exchange this season be one of love and presence. It’s the economy of the heart that I am looking to build this coming year. It’s increasing our capacity to love that I am hoping to stimulate.”
Happy New Year! Here’s to learning more lessons ~ Mary Anne
Taking a Sabbatical
Friday, November 13th, 2009
If you have ever listened to a TED talk on the Internet, you know about being inspired by the power of ideas. The “talks“highlight the best in the fields of technology, entertainment, and design (TED). Their motto is, “Ideas Worth Spreading”. Every year they hold a conference where folks present their ideas about new ways of thinking, connecting, and creating ideas.
After attending a TEDx event in New York City, I have been inspired by the power of ideas. I love listening to how people create, generate, and sustain ideas that create local and global vision. As someone who is always creating ideas – often scrawling them out on scraps of paper I have a lot of appreciation for the ‘power of ideas’. One talk that stood out was not just creating ideas, but taking time off throughout your career to regenerate your creative flow.
Stefan Sagmeister is a designer who closes his company every seven years for a full year in order to rejuvenate and refresh his creative ideas. He describes the life span of a person who spends their first 25 years learning, their next 40 working, and the final 15 enjoying their retirement (if they are lucky). His idea is interspersing our retirement years throughout our working years. It’s about having work that nurtures us and work as a calling – experiencing fulfillment. In his view people can experience work as a calling by taking time off – a sabbatical. Imagine taking a planned break to clear yourself of all distractions. Perhaps we are not ready or able to take a year off, but what if we could actually plan in our calendar a sabbatical to generate new ideas, listen to our inner creative voice, and appreciate our work as a calling.
stefan_sagmeister_the_power_of_time_off.html
I am thinking of ways of integrating a sabbatical in 2010. I would love to hear your thoughts. How do you envision taking a sabbatical? This is an idea worth spreading!
Peace, Mary Anne