The Sabbatical is Over, but the Journey is just Beginning
Weaving the Human and More-Than-Human Encounters into a Year-Long Adventure
This year, I am hitting the road. My traveling road show grew out of my summer 2025 sabbatical, which I referenced in my previous post.
Connecting with Community Cultivators
For over 20 years, I have been planting seeds. Seeds in the form of training and coaching in Asset-Based Community Development, sprinkled with faith and watered with care.
Some seeds I have been able to personally tend and watch grow through my years as a grassroots organizer and through my local coaching relationships, but other seeds were scattered across the globe through my virtual training offerings.
Through my travels, I want to see what sprouted. I also hope to see the landscape from a higher view, one that erases labels and tears down the silos that are keeping us from combining our efforts or at least keeping us from celebrating our combined presence. I will be checking in on those I have personally trained while also learning about other social movements up and down the East Coast, but with the heaviest concentration of stops being in my home state of Virginia.
While this journey is rooted in my work as a community cultivator, there is another, more personal motivation for this journey.
Connecting with More-Than-Human Guides
During my sabbatical, I spent a lot of time in nature, learning from her, being awed by her, and finding healing through her. These spiritually rich encounters came from my time with the dolphins who greeted me every morning on the beach at First Landing State Park, the eagle that tolerated my intrusion as it was taking its morning bath on the edge of Lake Moomaw, and the multitude of flowers and trees that brought beauty to every trail along the way. Sea or mountain, a tug of war in my soul for which should be placed in the #1 spot of my favorite Virginia stops on my sabbatical journey. I love them both!
Then there was the Canadian Rockies, the glacier-fed lakes, rivers, waterfalls, and snow-capped summits. Was my time in Banff and Jasper National Parks a once-in-a-lifetime experience, or will my upcoming travels lead me back? What might the ice fields whisper to us about the rising tide waters in Norfolk, Virginia?
Many would look at the snapshots from my summer exploits and think I was on an extended vacation, but in reality, it was a time of deep healing, a reflection on one of the darkest seasons of my life, and a time of metamorphosis. The healers were found in the form of dolphins, eagles, landscapes, water, and most of all, silence. Silence and stillness, allowing the waters of my soul to finally stop churning, and for clarity to emerge.
One question that arose was, Can I mix my work life with this deep commitment to be fully present to the natural world and its continued healing presence and guidance? How do these broader, more-than-human neighbors speak to and inform our community cultivation efforts? This is what I am attempting to discover during my travels.
I am inviting Wendy the community cultivator, Wendy the naturalist, Wendy the contemplative, Wendy the writer, Wendy the mother, Wendy the pastor, teacher, coach, and regional network weaver to become an integrated whole. Rather than silos, can I just be Wendy and see through multiple lenses all at once?
My travel companion on this journey is the most introverted man on the planet – my husband, Chris. He will be the counterweight to my social butterfly tendencies. My Substack subscribers, monthly writer’s group, and personal copy editor and daughter Kristen, are my accountability partners to the task of story collecting. The stillness and silence needed to write with any depth will grow out of my contemplative nature and my forest home in rural Virginia. However, the most important ingredient will be the beauty, awe, and wonder found in the untamed wild spaces where we will lay our heads at night as we travel in a 10x7 foot travel trailer named Roady.
Yes, it would be easier to get a hotel room and travel like “normal” people. But then I would miss the council of the creatures who will greet me when I rise before the sun, the songbirds who will serenade me, and the furry woodland creatures who will cautiously share their year-round homes with me, the stranger, or perhaps intruder of their peaceful existence.
Has my sabbatical journey really ended, or can I find a way to live the best parts as a way of life?
I launched Walking with Wildflowers as a place to capture what I learn along the way. I hope you will subscribe, add your own stories, and become a part of my journey. As I shared in my first post, Stories build connections and connections change the world.
I am hoping I can bring my whole, genuine self to this space, and I want to invite you to do the same. It is the only way to build real, transformative connections.
If you have had an opportunity to travel, how has it shaped you?
Do you have any travel suggestions as we prepare for our next trip?
What is your favorite way to travel or your favorite places to visit?
Other Resources
Ebony Walden’s Publication Beyond Borders, and this post What Do Martin Luther King Jr., bell hooks, and Rumi Have in Common?
“I believe that any journey taken with intention can become a pilgrimages of love, clarity, and depth.
Travel can be transformative because it pulls us out of autopilot.”
Amrita Bhohi’s Publication The Mustard Seed, and her Spiritual Ecology Book Club.
Robert Macfarlane’s book Is a River Alive
If you want a sneak peak of the kinds of stories that I am following, this past fall I did a few test flights to Cape Charles , Norfolk, and Appomattox and captured some insight over on our ABCD Community Cultivator site.
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