A few days ago, a friend of mine posted a quote on FaceBook from Mandy Hale that struck me. “You don’t always need a plan,” the blogger turned author wrote. Sometimes you need to just breathe, trust, and see what happens.”
It seems particularly appropriate this week, as I’ve got “Sabbatical 2.0” as I’m calling it, papered over at work. While it clearly wasn’t meant to happen in 2020, 2021 is my year – one way or another.
At this time last year, I was almost vibrating with excitement. I had my plane ticket booked and my flat booked. I’d told old friends I was coming to spend a few months in their city and I was starting to sketch out chapters. I was compiling lists of places to see and sites to visit, and researching libraries and coffee shops to write in and seaside walks to indulge in. And then COVID-19 happened, shutting down international travel and sweeping away my plans.
This time, it’s different. While Sabbatical 2.0 will happen, where it will happen is up in the air, and probably will be for months, while we wait to see where the world will be by next spring.
When he sent the final paperwork with his signature, my boss mused that half the fun of this sabbatical must be the planning of it. For Sabbatical 1.0, that was definitely true. But when it all crumbled in my hands, mere days before it was set to start, it was devastating. I can’t do that to myself again.
This goes against every fibre of my being. I’m a planner. I like to know what’s going to happen, when it’s going to happen, and how it’s going to happen. Knowing for certain that I’ll be stepping away from my job for six months, without actually knowing how and where I’ll spend those months is heart-poundingly terrifying!
But there’s absolutely no point in planning at this time. We don’t have any idea if international travel will be feasible, and even if it is, what countries may be options. I’ve got a domestic Plan B in mind, but even planning for that seems crazy at this stage.
So I’m going to breathe and trust that it will all work out and that Sabbatical 2.0 will be even better than it’s cancelled cousin would have been. And in the space that breathing allows, it leaves me with a chance to imagine other possibilities. You may remember, from when I announced Sabbatical 1.0, the dream I’ve had for years. Is it possible the water in that dream isn’t the water I think it is? All I really know for sure is that a water view needs to be part of the plan. What are your favourite places to get away from things and find inspiration? Let me know in the comments below!
