A sabbatical: a break or change from a normal routine.

According to Merriam Webster, it is to happen every 7 years. (Oops, I am 7 years late).

A sabbatical intends for rest, travel or research. I drop the “or” and make it “and,” rest, travel and research. Yes.

Come fall, I will wander west for a spell, and spend time and share experience with some amazing yoga teachers and Byron Katie, if they will have me. My cuppeth will filleth with all things good.

Perspective is defined as the capacity to view things in their true relations or relative importance - and to view your own task in a larger framework. I like that. I imagine my perspective will expand, clarity may follow and new inspirations will be born with what to do with this life and this place. Or better yet, what will be done with this life and this place, as guided, as intended in the greater plan than the one I can muster from here.

Since moving to this mountain to build a home and a dream on a prayer, I have directly participated in the building of 9 structures in as many years; structures to hold people, solar panels, poo, and fire.

It all starts the same; a vision on scratch paper or on a piece of 1 x 6 kiln dried local lumber too short to build something out of. What follows is clearing the land, lining up the support, hired or otherwise, gathering the materials and in weeks or months it is done. Sort of. Easy to say in a sentence.

Lately we have been renovating the very first building, informally referred to as “the barn” and formally named, Mount Pleasant Meeting House. It serves as the main space here for gathering and eating while on retreat and also as the yoga studio. Volunteers raised it over the course of 10 weekends back in 2003. As I lay a new floor and interior sheathing down, as I sand the grain and set each nail, I am touching all the parts, the corners and angles once held by so many in what feels like a life time ago. People came here and put themselves into a project in the name of love, service and community. I am moved, yet again, by the kindness shown here.

At the cusp of completion of what began as an idea, I am filled with resolve. I have fulfilled this idea with all that I have in me… and then some. I am acutely aware of an internal pull to step back now, widen my vision, like a fox walking keenly through the wild forest, aware of all that surrounds and fills its path.

The buildings are built and its stands on its own as a retreat for those looking for more peace. I will put away the Carharts for a while and build more than external structures. It is time for me to build deeper into the internal components of me.

Who am I without this place, this particular role in the world? Who am I without the endless list of what is next? Who or what will sit on the park bench watching the sky, the clouds, the surf, the birds, and the wind through the leaves in the trees? It is time to find out.

Friends will care-take and run the place, host retreaters, lead workshops, teach the yoga classes, and run the sauna, until my soon enough - return. And I will remain available, now and throughout my travels, to share the love of my life, The Work of Byron Katie. Its effect is often greater ease; gentleness and kindness that feeds this soul and anyone open to its transformative powers. I will meet any of you interested back here at NTN for an holistic coaching immersion into you, come to you in your own home or meet you by phone or webcam, heart to heart.

I see this sabbatical filled with Inquiry, writing, sitting, playing and conscious movement—both internal and external. I will look for you (and for me) on the path home. I look forward to sharing insights gained along the way, from another perspective.

Love, Jen Deraspe

Jen Deraspe, is the founder of Nurture Through Nature, an eco-retreat center in Denmark, Maine. Jen is a certified yoga instructor, a licensed Maine guide, and a certified coach and facilitator of The Work of Byron Katie. She has been leading holistic nature retreats since 1999. www.ntnretreats.com, (207) 452-2929.