Letter from the editor
The Power of Retreat
There comes a time in everyone’s life when you have to take a step back, assess the landscape and breathe before moving ahead to your next destination. Breathing in between moves is not only smart but very necessary if you are going to get the good out of each experience.
At some point in the history of the human race, someone got the idea that retreating was somehow a sign of weakness and that if you found the need to retreat you were lacking in good character and therefore not deserving of the good that life has to offer. I am not so sure that whoever purported this idea was anyone who had actually run a deliberate race and come up a winner.
When you retreat you are able to gain clarity about a situation. It becomes easier to remove emotions from the equation, which in many instances serve only to work against you, by clouding good judgment. After emerging from a state of retreat, what once appeared insurmountable, suddenly becomes par for the course.
Life has a way of taking control of the things that matter most, but only if we forget to honor them as a part of what we do. As important as it is to work hard and focus on achieving our goals, it is equally as important to linger for a while in those spaces and places that nurture our spirits and propel us to new horizons.
And how do you retreat, you might ask when situations and people are pulling at you from every direction? Very simple—you learn to say no.
It is amazing to me the power of such a simple word and how able people are, once prompted, to accept that life will not stop just because an individual decided to. We get from life what we are bold enough to ask for. Living is in essence a call and our response to it is what makes for good living.
We are beacons of light, waiting to bring our brilliance to the twists and turns of life’s uncertain paths. And just as the sun, in all its wonder, rises each morning and in the evening retreats in anticipation for the dawning of a new day, you too must pause, take a deep breath and know with certainty that you will emerge stronger and brighter as you welcome your second wind.
Deigratia,
Bonnie