Sabbatical Letter #2: On Leaving
Note: This series originally took the form of a newsletter to friends on my sabbatical travels from April to July 2026.
Dear friends,
On the cusp of leaving, I’m so grateful for my mother.
My flight to Croatia was delayed a couple of hours till 2.45 a.m. on a Sunday morning. I spent the whole of Saturday packing up, harried but grateful for the extra time, and that I managed to rebook my flight to one with a longer layover amidst Lufthansa strikes. I'll be away for three months, and the logistics is not dissimilar to moving out. I've spent the weeks prior clearing clothes so that drawers could finally close, throwing out expired medicine, finally seeing the bottom of shelves I hadn’t seen in ages.
My mother comes over to help me hold the other two corners of my bedspread, and demonstrate how to roll a comforter into a cover turned inside out — akin to rolling dough for swiss rolls. How to cover clean sheets with used ones to keep out the dust. And how roll my socks to fit more in my suitcase so it finally groans shut.
My mother's house is a haven for a last hot home-cooked meal of steamed fish, stir-fried vegetables and seaweed tofu soup. Lulu (our lab-mutt rescue) plants herself behind my mother, who is bent over my suitcase, so that my mum will trip over her once she gets up and pay her the attention she deserves. Later Lulu weaves around my legs so my black plane sweatpants are covered in blonde fur.
I’m consistently amazed at my mother’s dedication to orderliness. Her little table next to her reclining TV chair in her bedroom is a design marvel — snack boxes and coasters lined up at right angles, a mini dustbin for snack wrappers. She hands me neatly printed out booking confirmations (key information highlighted in yellow) for our Japan trip later in the year. Keeping a home in order is such an act of love and care. I want to be like this, too, but unfortunately am more of the type who shoves unfolded plastic bags into drawers between running from one endeavour to another.
Who are the people that fill in your gaps?
Love,
SH