40 Days: The Productivity of Retreat

"When I was a child, I wanted to be a hermit. I can remember in particular a strange background desire I had for some years to live alone in a pine forest. Why a pine forest? I have no real idea. I have never spent much time at all in a real pine forest. But that was where I wanted to be. I could imagine myself dwelling in the dark, dank heart of a pinewood. Life there, I knew, would be more intense, more magical, than life at home. For a time, as a romantic and imaginative child, I entertained the idea that my desire to be surrounded by pines was due to my having been a Viking in a previous life... But beyond the Viking theme, there was something else in here: something about being alone. Wild loneliness, ringing like a bell. A sense of connection to something far greater than me, in a place which is not controlled by my kind, and is not in thrall to us. A sense of smallness, from which can come greatness." This beautiful article shares more about the productivity of retreat.

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