"This Year" - as it has jokingly been come to be known around these parts - I'd like to share my process with you.  After 12 years of teaching, I am taking a sabbatical.  I am working on being more balanced, more present, more mindful.  Please read on, if you'd like to join me on this journey.

As I was reading, yesterday an image of a boy reeling in a heavy heart with a fishing rod popped into my head.  I stopped to enjoy the thought and then decided to sketch it in my journal.  As I was sketching, I was struck once again by this gift of time.  To be able to notice has always been a gift I've had.  Ask anyone who has let me look at their family photos, I see the background, the shoes the person was wearing, the food on the plate, the details.  The difference right now, is my ability to follow those thoughts a bit further.  To notice, dwell, and then act on a thought. 

Letters composed in my head can now be stamped and mailed.  Intentions can be come actions.  Dreams can become reality. Fleeting thoughts can become stories.