a rough start to my new job, I decided a few weeks later to return for a second year. I belabored over whether it was the right or wrong choice. But after spending the holidays with my family, I came back a new and refreshed person.

I tried to be more present in the daily beautiful moments. Lying on the road late at night looking at the Milky Way, or watching fantails fly into the convent to eat some of the flies and then exit out a different door, basking in a brilliant 40-minute long sunset from the side of the road as the mountains alighted in pink and orange hues.

I may have finally found some peace and balance in my role, but not everyone else had. By March my coworker – the sustainable food coordinator who was in charge of all the gardens and property management, effec...

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