"it's a sabbatical - day one"
Monday, April 07, 2008 Filed in: daily photos
| my life
today was day one of my two week sabbatical. people have been asking me a lot about this sabbatical and what it's about. so, here's the deal...
one thing that ROCKHARBOR is really intentional about is their traditions. of course, everyone has traditions and they can often become traditions simply for tradition's sake. however, in the case of RH, their traditions are always very purposeful. one strong tradition that RH holds is pouring into their employees (and volunteers for that matter) and making sure that they know that they are valued. this comes out in a number of ways. some of those are traditions in themselves. for instance, every year at Christmas, the staff is taken to Disneyland and given either a deluxe annual pass or the cash equivalent as a Christmas bonus. last Thursday, the girls went on their annual girls retreat. this year, a limo picked them up and took them all to a day spa. (apparently, the guys have never had one only because, from what i'm told, they haven't had a girl to plan it for them. i'm told that we will be breaking that tradition this year!)
anyway, one opportunity RH has created in the vein of this tradition of valuing the staff is our sabbaticals this year. over the course of the next few months, everyone on staff (from the top down to the receptionist) will get a two week guided sabbatical. now, at first, i was kinda skeptical. (i think it was the word "guided" that did it.) stuff like this tends to have ulterior motives. but i was mistaken. from what i've already seen (and heard from others who have already completed their sabbaticals) it's a very intentional time of rest and growth.
here's what i know so far...
today we met at ROCKHARBOR for our sabbatical orientation meeting. there are five people in our group including myself and Stacy. we were told that we will have 8 free days and four group days during the sabbatical. we are not allowed to step foot on campus, respond to e-mails or phone calls that are RH related or work in any way that would be considered RH related.
each day, we have an envelope that we open. the envelope will have our instructions for that day. most of them will be a simple scripture reading, a focus for the day and a small reading in the book we were all given. on our group days, our envelopes will tell us where we will meet and what we will do. the sabbatical will end with a two-day retreat next week.
the great thing though is that the structure that they've provided is loose enough to make it our own time but structured enough that it won't simply be a vacation. (after all, we are still be payed for this!) i'm excited about it and i'll keep you updated on what we've been up to every day.
- barnes
ps... here's my weigh in for this week...
