A Brief Note on Director Doom's Sabbatical

The history of Eighth Day Institute goes back to 2006 when we offered our first two classes: 1) Latin; and 2) The Bible and the Fathers. That was over fifteen years ago. My history with Eighth Day goes back even further to 1998 when I began working at Eighth Day Books (in its original Clifton Square location). All told, I’ve been involved with Eighth Day endeavors for almost a quarter of a century. That’s a long time, especially in an age in which the typical employee stays at a job for about four years, according to recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

I’m a bibliophile so working at Eighth Day Books came natural. I’m not an administrator so developing Eighth Day Institute did not come so natural.  Eighth Day Books was easy; I was, after all, just an employee whose sole responsibility was to sell books. Eighth Day Institute has been difficult; now I was the founder and sole employee with all of the responsibilities on my shoulders. Fifteen years of giving it all I had and just barely surviving year after year just plain wore me out. It also distracted me from my primary mission of being a good husband and father as the priest of my home.

So back in June, heeding the advice of a counselor and two good friends, I asked the EDI board of directors for a sabbatical. I needed time to renew my soul, time to be with my wife and kids, time to temporarily step away from books and events, and time to get out of the way of EDI’s ongoing development. And to my unexpected surprise, the board immediately voted to grant me a three-month sabbatical.

What did I do for three months, you may be wondering. First and foremost, I did something I’ve never really done: I spent lots and lots of time with my wife and kids. It’s actually what I mostly did. And it was the most important thing I could have done. I recently explained it to an Eighth Day Member by saying that I had three months to begin practicing the habit of being present at home, a practice vitally important for me to be able to continue being present after returning to EDI this past month.

I also took my 18-year-old daughter Hannah on a retreat to New Mexico with four friends, including EDI board members Jesse Penna and Joshua Sturgill…and with llamas! We hiked and camped in the Valle Vidal area of the Carson National Forest, otherwise known as the Yosemite of the Southwest. We had daily prayer together, one full day of silence, and we spent time reading, meditating on, and discussing three great books: The Way of the Heart by Henri Nouwen, Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and The Way of a Pilgrim (a good Eighth Day ecumenical selection: one Catholic, one Protestant, and one Orthodox). It was an incredibly invigorating time of renewal that reminded me of how important annual retreats are, a practice that was an annual habit for every year of my marriage until I started EDI. It also offered a special time to spend with my daughter before she left home to begin her new college life at the University of Tulsa, where she joins my oldest son.

Thank God for the EDI board of directors who so graciously and courageously provided this life-giving sabbatical. It was an incredible blessing for me and my family. But it was also a huge boost for EDI. As many of you know, EDI long ago outgrew me. This sabbatical forced me to get out of the way of its ongoing development, of which the board of directors has so brilliantly taken charge.

Many thanks to all of the EDI directors!!! You have increased the health of our organization by leaps and bounds and I’m thrilled to see how God will continue to use us to promote the renewal of culture through faith and learning!

And finally, many thanks to all of the EDI members. None of our events or publications would be possible without your faithful and generous support. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

In Christ,

Erin “John” Doom

P.S. The one other thing I did during this sabbatical was take running to a whole new, and slightly crazy, level. But you’ll have to wait for the next issue of Synaxis/Microsynaxis to hear about that.