Taking A Sabbatical

Several years after my divorce, I felt like I just needed to get away, find a safe resting place where I could relax, rejuvenate and restore the energy that my body, mind and soul were sorely lacking.

I didn't want to just take a few weeks off from work. I needed a change of scene. A safe haven. A place where I could be myself...There seemed only one place like that for me at the time: My mother's house in the flatlands of Misissippi. I needed to go someplace simple. Back to nature where I was always comforted in the past, where I felt closest to GOD. Where I sought the wise wisdom of my mama's words.

This time wasn't any different. My mama still got up in the wee hours of the morning to wash. I'd lie in her bed with the high box springs and mattress tilting my small frame off the bare hardwood floor. She'd be singing one of her favorite spirituals as was her custom when she felt good...It was one of her prodigal daughter's rare visits...she was feeling good, as was I.

Long after I'd gotten up for a country breakfast and chit chat. I'd wander outside to the backyard where mama still hung her wash on the clothes line to dry under a natural sunlight. I'd watch the clothes flapping in the brisk winds, reliving how my siblings and I would play between the wash as children, often stopping to grab a hand full of clothing just to sniff their freshness.

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I had reached a crossroads in my personal and professional life. I knew that, although, this place where my mother called home, wasn't really my home anymore,it was refuge for a wayward daughter.

I had responsibilities; A mother of young adults. A divorced woman. A woman with a profession. Yet, it wasn't the only life I'd have chosen for myself.

I made a vow to God, the world, myself...I was going to find my way back to me. I was going to crave out a place that comforted me,much like my mother's place that always healed me with loving arms. It would become my place of respite in trying times.

I've come home to visit my mother's place a few times since her transition some 6 years ago. I always make it a point to tell her about her grandchildren, her great grandchildren and then we chit chat a bit...I tell her how much I miss her sheets just flapping in the winds.

I tell her that I'm always going to use my life experiences to encourage and counsel other women to take "special" time out just for themselves...