Go outside and play

Aaron, baby and I are just back from DLTI -- the Davenning Leadership Training Institute -- held in a picturesque Jewish retreat center in Connecticut. The weeklong program is the first of four sessions held over a two-year period, focusing on how to become a better religious service leader. I attended the program and Aaron played Papa Extraordinaire.

The program was wonderful, and I recommend it to anyone who wants to improve their art of service leading. The logistics were difficult, being away from home, away from all the paraphernalia, with a 6-week-old infant. Breast-feeding in the downright FREEZING cabin at 2 a.m., with no heat -- well, that was a memorable experience to say the least.

Sadly, this one week away constitutes our collective family "vacation" for the year, if you can call it that. I came home to find an email from a work colleague heading out for his own vacation for the year. As he pointed out (in the graph above), we Americans really don't do very well when it comes to giving our brains and our bodies a timeout.