— Robert L. Rosen

I spent the last few days breaking with the routine of pandemic life that I have heard many describe as “Groundhog Day” – repeating our virtual-working, social-distancing way of life over and over and over and . . .

My colleagues, fellow learners, and I took ourselves and the metaphor of marathon off our tracks and into an ‘Off Road’ way of being. During the Fall of the pandemic, I — with fellow facilitators — designed a workshop at a horse ranch, to be held mostly outside and observing Covid protocols. It was such a refresher and an experience of renewal that the facilitator team committed to do it again.

Jackie Lowe Stevenson of Pebble Ledges Ranch, Kathy Telban of iSolvit, and I started our design process in the first months of this new year. We planned for a spring and fall, three-day experience that would facilitate individuals finding connection with themselves, their relationships, their organizations, and the greater world. We called it a Learning Circle to Imagine.

I like to think of it as Adult Camp. a time for slowing down, letting go, listening, discovering, and just plain friendship and fun. The underpinnings of content were deep and meaningful questions and frameworks explored with nature, a herd of horses, a pack of dogs, a walk, a fire, and time to reflect, share, and imagine what is waiting to happen.

The pace was so very different than my adopted day-to-day pandemic lifestyle. I let go of the phone, emails, and schedule and took my authentic self “Off Road” with trusted colleagues and a circle of leaders and learners looking to invest in their well-being.

How does this sound to you?

I am still holding the quiet, the soft heart, and slow pace. I hope to carry this groundedness into the weeks ahead.

Letting myself find this ‘off road’ experience has renewed my faith in collaboration, contribution, and community.

I have exercised my competencies and discovered new muscle.

I feel clear and centered.

I have left the pasture and woods with a new compass to help guide me through the next phase of the marathon into which we have been thrust. Everything I had let go of was waiting for me to pick up again. I may do life a little more slowly and quietly, with more sense of intention versus just action.

As more of us are vaccinated, we will have decisions to make about how we reconnect and reorganize our lives and work. More to do. More to learn. More to live.

What in your world wants to happen? Who do you need to be to make it possible? What are you on the brink of discovering?

I wish you an ‘off road’ experience (maybe a vacation?) and well-being as we walk or run into the future together.