Beyond Knitting
Self-care: Home Sweet Retreat
What do you think of when someone says they’re “going on retreat”? Do you imagine them getting up to do yoga at five am in what was once a Jesuit monastery? Perhaps you are seeing cinder block architecture and a lot of sleepy rumpled yoginis.
Or maybe you imagine something sybaritic. With beaches. Tulum perhaps! Could still have meditation, but probably also margaritas.
These are a couple of the more common forms we see today. But the history of retreating is mostly religious, and as far as I can tell was an act usually undertaken by the desperate. Someone would flee to the desert and in all sincerity beg God to show them the way out again.
Often they got their answer.
Side note: It seems many of the prophets of old somehow lived right near a desert. This is most likely not a coincidence. If they couldn’t find what they sought amid the hustle and bustle, and they had a handy place to withdraw, well: answers followed.
The prophets of more recent times, specifically Lenny Kravitz, have also articulated the need for retreat. You probably remember this cri de coeur lyric: I want to GET away. I want to get AWAAAAAAAY!!
As do we all, from time to time. And when we can’t, retreating at home is the next best thing. So for our purposes, when we don’t have the luxury of time, travel and all the money that that can imply, there is the DIY version.
Since you’re doing it yourself, it can be exactly as you wish. On March 20, we will get together on Zoom to design our retreats together, and I really hope you can join me for that! (You can register here!)
But even if you can’t join us for class, here are some ideas to get you started:
How much time would you like? Your self-designed retreat can be long or short. Half a day or a whole week.
Do you need alone time or together time? You can have yourself a solo situation or you can do a retreat with like-minded friends.
You can retreat for literally any purpose. (Any purpose but work, I will add. A work retreat is usually just work; I’m not saying anything you don’t know from experience.)
Some possibilities:
- recuperation from some hardship
- marking a transition (empty nest, retirement, end of a partnership or business)
- begin an important project
- complete an important project
- reading intensive
- writing retreat
- yoga retreat
- religious prayer and meditation retreat; oldie but goodie!
- A KNITTING retreat (!)
- care of the body retreat
- an art retreat (perhaps using the work of Lynda Barry)
Below in the comments, let me know if the need for a brief purposeful respite resonates with you, if you already know exactly what your purpose in retreating would be, and/or if you have any questions about the upcoming MDK class (info and sign up here). I look forward to it all!
Image credit: Bungalow with Flowers, Helene Mass, c. 1920, Minneapolis Institute of Art. Used with permission.
I signed up for the workshop as soon as I learned about it. Coincidentally it’s on my birthday so it’s a gift to myself – not something I normally do.
Until September 27 my husband and I were living full-time in our RV and had been traveling for the previous year. We had sold our house and planned to travel for a while before deciding where to settle and buy another house.
He had a stroke on 9/27 and long story short, in 3 weeks time I had to find/purchase a place to live, pack up the RV, move us into a condo near medical/rehab facilities, all while taking him to OT/PT three times a week and doing everything at home that he is not able to do because of paralysis in his left arm and leg.
I just need a few hours at home – no cooking, cleaning, laundry – a day in my “loom room” weaving and resting my mind and body.
Debbie, I think you deserve time for yourself and I hope you can find a way to do that.
Also-what an amazing wife and caregiver you are. I’m in awe.
Thank you!
Wishing you rest and health!
Debbie
I am so sorry to hear that. Our RV is my retreat and what a ljfe change you have had. I pray for some time of respite for you.
Thank you, we so miss our home on wheels!
Rehabilitation and physical healing retreat. I keep moving, going, doing, accepting social invites and volunteering requests. If I stayed home and rested for two weeks, with gentle daily movements, stretches, lots of rest, reading and knitting, maybe this very painful pulled muscle could finally heal.
Any time we can take a step back for self care is a blessing.
Your first paragraph made me laugh out loud! So, you’ve been to Kripalu?? My retreat will be exorcism and recuperation. Can’t wait.
Definitely knitting retreat to finish a project and dream and plan on the next one! No phones, no TV – Hot tea and my favorite sandwich in between.
I’m on a knitting retreat right now in Saluda, NC. My aunt lived in her parents’ house for decades and spent most of her time here knitting.
Just the idea of a retreat fills me with excitement! Can’t wait for the workshop
Retreats conjure up the idea of removal from the normal routine but they also make me think of a combination of slowing down but feeling things intensely. Also having a lasting impact, taking things (ideas, feelings) forward from the retreat itself.
Sign me up! It was a tough fall and winter.With all due reverence and respect to God, please point me in the direction of a desert……
I’m thinking somewhere alone, knitting, good book and maybe body spa.
I had never heard of Lynda Barry. Now, I have three of her books coming to me through the local library. 🙂 I won’t be able to do the retreat, but I thank you for introducing me to an artist.