MY MARRIAGE SABBATICAL

An empty-nester spends a year traveling the globe in this solo travel memoir.

Fisher worked for more than three decades as a psychotherapist, making frequent appearances on such national television programs as The Oprah Winfrey Show and 60 Minutes. As she approached 60,her career entered its final years; as her husband continued to work long hours, she became increasingly dissatisfied with what she saw as the “tension” between her life and her spouse’s professional ambitions. In an effort to find renewed meaning and personal fulfillment, Fisher came to an agreement with her husband that she would travel abroad by herself for a year. To assuage his uncertainty about the arrangement, she promised that she would make occasional trips home, and she granted him permission for “casual sexploration.” Most of this empowering travel memoir, told from the perspective of an older woman, centers on the thrills and happiness that she found on her journeys, which took her to the Caribbean, Latin America, and elsewhere. Many of her trips blended tourism and cultural immersion with volunteer activism, such as her time in Guatemala, where she helped children traumatized by natural disaster. A few of her stories are harrowing, as when she tells of surviving an earthquake in Indonesia. Fisher is honest about her own insecurities throughout, which makes for a refreshingly self-aware and relatable memoir. She’s also not afraid to answer awkward but inevitable questions; an entire chapter, for example, is dedicated to “Sex and the Single Spouse,” in which she openly discusses her nervousness upon seeing her husband for the first time in months, and her conflicted emotions upon discovering that he’d found another potential sexual partner. As a trained marital counselor, Fisher also offers readers sound advice on how to navigate transitional periods in a marriage, especially when spouses have different visions. The book concludes with “A Guide to Conducting Your Own Couple Retreat,” which includes self-assessment satisfaction quizzes, discussion questions for conversation exercises, and planning worksheets.

An inspiring travel remembrance that also serves as a practical guidebook to marital satisfaction.