I came to the end of the road, and stopped.

Because it was the end of the road.

I could go no further.

The North Atlantic ocean sprawled in from of me.

Waves crashing.

The sea spray an ominous green, carried on a bitter winter wind.

The retreat center on the spit.

Warm and inviting.

Cozy and quiet.

And still.

I came to be still. Because I’d come to the end of the road, and could go no further.

A necessary action. (Or inaction.) Stopping.

If you’re anything like me, you’re busy. You’ve got a lot going on.

Responsibilities. Obligations.

Jobs. Bills to pay. People to care for.

The slipstream (vortex?) of life.

The problem (coaches ought to say “challenge”) for me is that I love my work; I love the people I’m privileged to serve, and love all the things that I get to play at: running, climbing, adventuring.

Life is an action sport for me.

A lot of doing. A paucity of being.

Oh sure, I have my morning routines. My journal practice, meditation, reflective reading.

It all sounds good (sane?) until those practices themselves dissolve into the slipstream.

Then unwittingly they become still more doing.

Until I get to the end of that road.

Before the pandemic, I’d schedule regular days away at a retreat house. (A favorite the Weston Priory.)

I fell out that rhythm of things, to my detriment.

Until this month. I reclaimed that practice.

A day. Away. Away from the office; away from the house; away from the Zoom room; away from the emails, text messages, notifications and alerts; away from the din of the interweb, and the siren call of social.

When I teach meditation, I often use one of those holiday snow globes as a metaphor to describe what happens when you meditate: Life shakes up the globe; and when you sit in meditation, the flakes begin to settle.

A retreat day (a day of recollection or reflection) allows everything to settle.

You’re able to renew your clarity and focus; reconnect with your heart; and reclaim that deepest part of you.

The divine within you that calls you in the stillness.

Give yourself a day.

Be still; and know.

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I can help you find the time for you. Let’s connect. Email me: walt@summit-success.com