Midlife Gap Year — For Chris

As of this date, Chris is in his 3rd week of beginning a “midlife gap year”. Yup, after months of contemplation and planning, he made a big decision to take a break from his career and reassess life. As people hear about his “leave”, I jokingly say I’m pleased he chose this over a new sports car or girlfriend! (For those who know him, you would know these ideas would be totally out of his character!)

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A man and his dog… enjoying LIFE!

Yes, it’s different having him home more and so r-e-l-a-x-e-d! What I love are the things he has done in these three short weeks. He has signed up with a gym so he can keep his exercise routine. He bought a bike so he can ride solo (vs. our weekly tandem rides). He journals EVERY morning. This is a huge one for him! It’s a practice called “morning pages” where he writes what’s equivalent to three handwritten pages — anything, everything, stream of consciousness. He is signed up for a week-long drawing class later this month down in Santa Barbara. It is one that is quite well known, “Drawing From the Right Side of the Brain” put on by the son of the famous author of the book, Betty Edwards. And in April he begins a meditation class.

I admire him for taking this breather. It wasn’t as easy to decide as one might think it would be mainly because it challenged a way of thinking and way of “being” particularly for someone like Chris living an established, routine life of an engineer in Silicon Valley.

I do believe though it is his journey, I will certainly enjoy and benefit from the ride too. Stay tuned for more!