Beloved Highland,
What a gift it is to be back with you after a season away of renewal and Sabbath-keeping! I’m so thankful for your warm welcome back, hugs, cards, and notes as I find my footing in the daily rhythms of Highland life. So many of you have asked about my Sabbatical and what shape it took, for as we know plans are guidelines, and then there is the actual lived experience. In my mind, I divided the time by months.
April was a month of remembering. It became a time of remembering rest, remembering what brings me joy, remembering what it is like to move and be with a freedom that modern life doesn’t afford often, if ever. It looked like journaling every morning on my sunporch, listening to the birds sing, noticing spring springing in my backyard, naps, reading, and reconnecting with my family in everyday ways like watching the solar eclipse and going on a dinner date with Tyler.
May was a month of replenishing. It became a time to focus on what parts of me needed more attention and care, how to care for my body, and like the Cole Arthur Riley quote that grounded my entire leave, how to “recall the ground” right in front of me. It meant shifting some of my original plans to more everyday practices that could sustain me for the long-haul. It meant volunteering at Eliza’s school during teacher appreciation week. It meant more journaling and more sunporch sitting and watching more flower blooms emerging. It meant trying to save a nest of baby bunnies born in our herb garden from our eager beagle, Mazie. It meant ice cream celebrations on the last day of school, and with the help of a neighbor, finally finishing a puzzle I’d been working on for a very long time.
June was a month of rising. It became a month of practicing what I’d learned, anticipating my return to Highland, trying to finish a few things on that original planned to-do list, and giving grace when that to-do list didn’t quite get conquered. There are fewer images of this season, because it became more active and the days more full.
I hope you’ll see evidence of my rest, my renewal, my presence in the moment as we move into this season together. Thank you, Highland, for the gift of time, for the ability to reconnect with God, myself and my family, and for the opportunity to find again a place of grounded wholeness that is life-transforming.
With deepest gratitude,
~ Renee Purtlebaugh