This is an article about retreating, whether it be for an afternoon, a week, or a year. Retreats are for those times when you've reached a personal plateau from which you just don't seem to be able to budge. Maybe you're very tired from weeks or months of hard work. Maybe you need to grieve a loss but you just can't seem to find the time. Maybe you're surrounded by people and demands all day long and you just plain need to get away. Maybe God is calling you, so you need to stop and listen for a while. Maybe all you know is that you need to move forward, but you don't know how or why. A retreat is time you give to yourself to allow you to quiet down, tune in, and really listen to your soul.
A retreat can be anything that takes you away from you routine and gives your brain a little space to breath. By no means do you have to do months of research to find the perfect place, or even get a grant and go on sabbatical. Retreating is simply closing the door on the everyday world you inhabit, and filling your lungs, soul, heart and mind with something new and refreshing.
In her excellent book, The Woman's Retreat Book, Jennifer Louden suggests it is possible to take a retreat at home. (I happen to lead a retreat with Jennifer - the Women's Writer's Spa in Taos NM.) One key component is to remove all the stressors in your home -- put on the answering machine, ask neighbors not to drop by, remove the family by sending them to a friend or relative, and close the door on the messiest rooms. Then you need to prepare the rooms you will retreat in.
Louden suggests space clearing by burning sage, spritzing water, or clapping hands as you walk around each room you will occupy. Change sheets, freshen towels, vacuum, dust, clean up in the first hour of your retreat -- then create a sacred ceremony for yourself that really marks your entry into the retreat mode. One reader in Louden's book drove her car to a nearby arboretum where it could stay parked for a few days. She had purposefully taken a long, hot bath, pampered herself, and put on favorite clothing for the moment of retreat to begin. Then she crossed a brook on a small bridge, and walking back across it, declaring her retreat begun. The woman then strolled home to the clean, restful silence of her home for the remainder of the weekend.
Stay tuned for more on this tomorrow …
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