Three years ago our firm adopted a policy of turning off email and our internal chat whenever our team members are on vacation for a week or longer. At first I was not a fan of the idea. I was expecting everyone to be inundated with emails when they returned from vacation and having clients frustrated because they couldn’t an advisor. After my first few vacations being disconnected, I realized my concerns were not warranted as our team was now large enough to actually respond to all incoming calls and emails and for the most part I came back to a fairly short task list.

What I also realized was that without almost any contact from work I was really capable of decompressing and relaxing to a level I wasn’t able to when I was still connected to work. The mental freedom allowed me to return to work more engaged and find points of inspiration to bring home with me.

This April my family went to visit my daughter Isabelle in Barcelona. She is a Junior at The University of Vermont and was studying abroad this spring semester. Although I had visited the city 25 year ago I was amazed at its evolution and really enjoyed the food, Cava, and hospitality of it’s residents.

I also found inspiration in the natural beauty that existed both in the city as well as the surrounding countryside and Mediterranean coast. To me the highlight in this category was the Sagrada Familia (https://sagradafamilia.org/) the temple started 140 years ago by Antoni Gaudi and is scheduled to be fully completed in 2026.

Growing up Irish, catholic with three siblings, I have seen my share of churches and cathedrals as they we part of any trip itinerary given their beauty, spiritual offering and the fact that they were free to visit. The Sagrada Familia is in a different category in part because it is so new and different than most cathedrals. Gaudi used nature and light as his guiding north star in every part of the design and it is evident both inside and outside.

The picture above shows how the ceiling and pillars represent trees in a forest and the canopy overhead. While the photo below shows one of the many places on the outside where fruit is part of the design. These are used as symbols of abundance of faith, charity and good works.

Not only was the cathedral an inspiration but to understand the history of it’s construction and what drove the design was also inspiring. Gaudi worked on it’s construction for 30 years and in the final 10 years of his life it was his singular focus.

While my work is insignificant compared to Gaudi, I do like the concept of using things outside my usual scope of work for inspiration and for helping to shape the conversation I have with my clients. I also like the concept of building something that will last for generations. This is true for our firm which is designed to be here and independent for multiple generations and for clients where we emphasis the family wealth they are building can be a positive force for many generations.

In this age of constant connection with our work, I have found these weeks of being disconnected allow a complete reset of my thinking and life perspective. I usually return to work more engaged, fully destressed and with new inspirations both professionally and personally from my travels.

Anything created by human beings is already in the great book of nature – Antoni Gaudi