Leave of Presence
Posted on August 12, 2004 in personal.
Viral has decided to take another six months off to go within. His employers call it a leave of absence, he calls it a leave of presence.
He sent out the following note to some friends before he started.
fellow tigers,
an update: i am taking a six-month leave of absence (hopefully a leave of presence!) from work, having started this week.
the last time i took a significant break from the usual patterns was toward the end of college. that was a time to ask the "bigger" questions, understand where my life was to go, discover tools for the journey, and come to a greater sense of clarity. and i remember a friend asking me when i got back, "so, did your questions get answered?" i thought about this for a moment, and realized that some of them did, but with the majority of them, it wasn't that they had all been answered, but rather that i had come to a sensability of resting within the questions.
this time off feels different -- more of a deepening than a searching. i still haven't concretized the where/when/whats, but am clear on the intentions: seems like no matter what i do, i could always use a deepening of 1) my capacity to be present, solid, internally unwavering, balanced and 2) my capacity to be open-hearted and compassionate.
abstract admittedly, but a start :-) and a start is really the only thing i feel is needed: the journey itself will be dynamic, whether i know and understand it right now or not.
so anyway, i will be in solitude for various parts of the next few months (starting this evening), and will likely not be in touch by email/phone. i just wanted to let everyone know ... i hope to be cultivating in these ways, and i'm sure you all will be further traversing your own paths; utlimately, i have no doubt that our journeys remain fundamentally connected!
peace
viral