Soft Sabbaticals

A gentle residency in attention
for creative minds

Soft Sabbaticals is a practice space for creative minds who want to reconnect with their sense of aliveness, curiosity, and presence—even when life feels full.

Through tiny, playful sensory and sound-based explorations, you'll learn to notice the poetics of the everyday, attune to what's alive around you, and discover how small acts of attention can transform your experience of being in the world.

These aren't practices that require you to go somewhere special or wait for the right conditions. They happen in your actual life—at your kitchen window, on your daily walk, with objects you already have. Small, repeatable acts of attention that become doorways back to feeling fully alive.

Sabbatical One:

The Memory of Sound and Place

This first sabbatical explores how sound weaves memory into the spaces and objects that shape our daily lives. You'll listen to thresholds—what passes through a window or doorway versus what's held back. You'll choose an everyday object and imagine what sounds it has witnessed. You'll create a sound map that overlays present sounds with remembered ones, revealing how places hold time in layers.

Through gentle, playful listening and tiny explorations, you'll discover how sound connects self and environment across time—revealing the subtle relationships, stories, and mutual belonging that emerge when we offer our attention to the living world around (and within) us.

Here's what you'll experience

Soft Sabbaticals isn't a course or program to complete—it's a practice that meets you where you are, with enough structure to keep you engaged but not so much that it becomes another obligation.

Each sabbatical is guided by three core practices:

Listening-with
Exploring-with
Becoming-with

These practices honor relationship with the more-than-human world—drawing on lineages of artists, researchers, and practitioners who've developed relational approaches to sound, place, and attention.

Rather than learning about these practices, you experience them directly—discovering how these relational practices transform ordinary moments into encounters with aliveness.

Eight Weeks of Guided Exploration

Each week offers gentle directives for sensing and listening, daily micro-investigations you can complete in 5 minutes, and optional "rabbit holes" when you want to go deeper.One week you might explore thresholds—listening on both sides of a window—while another week focuses on objects as sonic witnesses to your daily life.

Weekly Tiny Dispatches

A dedicated private podcast where I’ll introduce our week’s practice and guide you into the exploration and share context from the artists and researchers like Pauline Oliveros, Hildegard Westerkamp, Christine Sun Kim, KMRU, and Janet Cardiff. Mid-week, I'll offer guiding questions and support to help you lean in more deeply. Think of these tender audio dispatches as companionship for the journey.

Your Personal Practice Dashboard

A thoughtfully designed Notion template that helps you document what you're noticing without the overwhelm of a blank page. All of our practices will be accessible here, ready for you to engage with. It’s also a place to record sound observations, upload field recordings, jot quick notes, or map connections between ideas. It's yours to keep forever.

The Soft Sabbaticals Gallery

A private Are.na space where you can optionally share your process—field recordings, photos, sound maps, written reflections—or simply witness what others are noticing. No likes, no comments, no performance. Just quiet co-presence around shared curiosity.

Sabbatical Support Line

Wondering if you're "doing it right"? Stuck on how to approach an exploration? Send in your questions and I'll respond through the private podcast, so your inquiry supports our collective learning.

How it works

This is an 8-week experience. You can access the content in three formats: website, Notion dashboard, and audio podcast.

This isn't a linear experience where you need to "catch up." You engage with the practices as they resonate with your available time and energy.

You might spend a full Saturday doing a long soundwalk and creating a detailed sound map, or you might just listen for three minutes while making coffee on a busy Tuesday. Both are valid ways to practice.

You might engage deeply with Week 3 and skip Week 4 entirely. You might do Week 1 three times before moving on. The practices aren't building blocks—they're different entry points into the same terrain.

Participants have full access to all materials throughout their enrollment, and your personal Notion dashboard is yours to duplicate and keep forever.

What to expect when you join:

When you join, you’ll receive a welcome email with login info. Once logged in, you’ll find:

a welcome guide and video to orient you to the space.
Week 1 ready for you (accessible on the site, in your Notion dashboard, and on the private podcast).

We officially begin Tuesday October 21st when doors close. But, you’re free to engage with the first week’s practice as soon as you join.

Each Sunday, you’ll receive an email with the week’s focus and practices, ready for your engagement.

Mid-week, I’ll send out a tiny dispatch via the private podcast, a supportive touch-in for companioning you through the sabbatical experience.

Still have questions?

"What if I sign up and then don't follow through?"
There's nothing to "keep up" with. The practices aren't building blocks where you need the previous one to understand the next—they're different entry points into the same terrain. Maybe you linger with week 2 for several weeks, or only engage with week 5 or 7. At the end of the 8 weeks, you’ll have an archive of the practices to keep with you for ongoing exploration and practice. You choose what works for you.

"I don't have time for another commitment."
Soft Sabbaticals honors your real time constraints and shifting energy. The explorations can adapt to whatever time you have—some take just 5 minutes, while others can expand into longer sessions when you have spaciousness. There's no pressure to complete anything or maintain any schedule.This is a practice to carry with you.

"Is there a community forum or group discussions?"
No, and that's intentional. This practice space is designed without the pressure of community forums, group calls, or expectations to show up socially. There is a private Are.na gallery where you can optionally share your process or outcomes—photos, field recordings, written observations, or other documentation—if you choose.

It's a quiet space for witnessing, not discussing—no likes, no comments, no performative engagement. The focus stays on your personal practice and direct support from me through the weekly dispatches and Support Line—because for many people, removing the social performance aspect is what finally makes a creative practice sustainable.

"Do you offer refunds?"
Due to the experiential nature of this offering, no refunds are available.

"Will there be future sabbaticals?"
I hope so! This first offering explores The Memory of Sound and Place, and I'm already dreaming up future themes and practices. What comes next will be shaped by what resonates most with participants—what supports your aliveness, what feels and what you want more of. You'll be part of figuring out what Soft Sabbaticals becomes.

Ready to Begin?

Enrollment for The Memory of Sound and Place opens October 14th runs through mid-December

This is the founding cohort—a small group of us figuring out what Soft Sabbaticals can be. By joining now, you're not just participating in a practice; you're helping me shape what this becomes. Your experience and feedback will directly influence how future sabbaticals evolve.

If you're ready to reconnect with what makes you feel truly alive, if you want to trust that small acts of sensory attention can transform ordinary moments, and if you're drawn to being part of an experiment in creative attention—this space was made for you.

You don't have to wait for perfect conditions.

You can start exactly where you are.

Join The Waitlist →