October 20, 2022

My dearest,

It’s time for a break. No one goes to their grave wishing they had spent more time at work, after all. I tell you maybe what I need is a sabbatical. Time away from assignments and interviews, and just quiet time to think and wonder, to dream and to wander, uninterrupted.

To allow time and life to flow through me.

There is a practical aspect to this, of course. I would like to do my part in figuring out what our future home would look like, which interior designer might suit our Japandi tastes the best, to plan for our trip to Tokyo (our first in three, four years, now?), to take over the burden you have been shouldering of late as I have been swamped with work.

A marriage, a friend reminded me recently, isn’t keeping track of who did what or calculating whose round it is. Our relationship is based on taking turns, to do what we can, when we can, but also knowing the best times are when we do things together.

Then these aren’t chores or errands or tasks. They are the things we do and the things we love to do because we get to do it for each other, for the both of us, for our life now and our years yet to come.

This, I realise, would not be a sabbatical – but a privilege. An honour and a blessing to have more time with you, my dearest.

Yours, ever and always.