Retreat

I know it’s time to retreat into the Silence of solitude when

♥ I am the frequent subject of my own critical eye

♥ laughter’s faded from my heart

♥ my disposition has shifted into low gear

Surely, I must have been a monastic in a past life.

Because unlike many people in times of trouble, I seek refuge in the quiet of my own company.

Retreat is a movement away from the habitual. A stripped-down menu of customary life rituals. Simple meals. Reflection and rest.

Sacred time to shed old skin.

Retreat offers …

an escape from the pestering of external imposition. Shelter for agitated thinking. Plentiful stillness for speech to catch her breath.

An opportunity to follow the contours of personalized pacing and rhythm, as life organically unfolds.

I do what pleases me.

Listening to the tiny voices in Nature. An inkling of mole flutter as she peeks from her burrow. Or, catching a nose-full of sage on the breeze while hiking a steep hill.

The black flash of Raven. Easily missed, had senses not become heightened in the Silence.

But every now and again, Retreat reveals a vast vibrant energy rising up in me. Crazy-wild and eager to get out. To take to the streets and be counted!

Sometimes … it’s not about quiet, but about getting louder.

So I can hear it.

Shunted aside in the flurry of fast-pace, some feelings require patience and a little elbow room — before they can trust us enough to let us know them.

A helping hand for steadiness as they take their first steps. And, reach for a microphone. The voices of our Soul.

We invite them in for tea and a chat.

And our lives are transformed.

Like that open space, our hearts are growing wide as the sky. And as tender as a cloud.

Without silence, we can neither know ourselves, another, or the depth of anything beautiful.

Donna Goddard