The New Crop: Issue #116
sand mandalas & hole-y blankets + "how to quit a job professionally"
What’s in this issue:
💭 Thought: Sand mandalas & hole-y blankets
📚 Read: How to Quit a Job Professionally: Employee Exit Strategy
😀 Today’s Smile
Confirmation that no secret is safe with a 4-year-old. 😂
💭 Today’s Thought
This week, I learned about the Buddhist practice of sand mandalas.
Monks spend hours (sometimes days) creating intricate designs from colored sand — only to intentionally sweep them away when they’re done. It’s a ritual that honors impermanence: the idea that everything material is temporary.
This practice struck a chord.
I recently picked up knitting and started my first project — shocker: it’s a blanket. :)
I’ve made plenty of mistakes, but I don’t really care how it turns out, or even if I finish it. The act of knitting just feels… calming. Therapeutic.
If I’m honest, it’s one of the only things I do that isn’t about getting better, achieving something, or being productive. Like sand mandalas, knitting right now feels like a quiet celebration of process. Of finding pleasure in the present moment, not in the destination.
As Stephan Joppich says,
Wasted time is a state of being where our essence isn’t bound to optimization, systematization, or subsidization. It’s a necessity.
So while I’m here making a hole-y, slightly lopsided blanket, I’m curious:
What’s your version of “wasting time”? And how might it actually be something essential?
🖊️ Today’s Reflection
If you’re new to journaling, I highly encourage you to read Nancy Adler’s article: Want to be an outstanding leader? Keep a journal.
This week, find a quiet place and gift yourself 10 minutes to reflect on any of these prompts (or invent your own!):
Where in your life are you most caught up with proving, improving, or achieving? How is that serving you?
If your inner overachiever took a nap, what would the rest of you do with the day?
📚 Today’s Read
How to Quit a Job Professionally: Employee Exit Strategy
There comes a moment in many careers when staying feels heavier than leaving. Whether it builds slowly through burnout or hits you all at once in a tense meeting, the realization that it’s time to quit your job is both clarifying and deeply uncomfortable. For many people, this decision brings up anxiety, doubt, and the looming question: What now?
Read on for practical tips on making the decision to quit and exiting well. »
See you next week!
xo,
Anne