My sabbatical is coming to an end soon, but not before I take one more class. I’ll be joining a Wild Wonder workshop in California next month, learning the art of nature journaling with Robin Lee Carlson and John Muir Laws.

This sabbatical has been an immense gift. I’ve studied freshwater mussels at Ohio State University; I took an environmental writing class through Orion Magazine in upstate New York; and my wife and I dipped into our savings to take in some mutually beneficial conferences, and to visit family in New York, Chicago, and Sweden.

I am grateful for the opportunities, and I look forward to sharing what I have learned with my students.

It also has me considering: what next? Do I continue to teach as I have, or do I look for new ways to expand that teaching?

I’m not sure. For this coming year, at least, I will go back to doing what I’ve done before (see my note to my students for more about that)

But I do so with an eye on the horizon. Higher education has been a wonderful journey and a great place to work, and I don’t plan to leave altogether, but I’m wondering how else to make use of this work that I have for the benefit of my community. This is a joyful thing to ponder!

One of my practices during my sabbatical has been such pondering, in the consistent form of journaling. I’ve just about 450 handwritten pages of journal at this point, plus a bunch of sketchbooks I’ve filled, in addition to the writing I do with a keyboard. I review that writing often and find themes emerge that help me think about what lies ahead.

One thing for sure: I don’t ever want to stop learning.

Another: I don’t ever want to stop sharing what I learn with those who might benefit from it.