Five years ago, my partner Karen and I committed to taking a self-funded leave. Working and living in Toronto makes for a frenetic life — always busy always booked, always rushing. Work, raising our son, community engagement and social times are all enjoyable aspects of life but we needed to just explore a different route and lay down different tracks. As our leave time approached we asked ourselves: What do we want to do with this precious six months? What are we leaving and what are we going towards? We decided that: The purpose of our journey is to nourish our creative selves as we explore new territories.