Retreat without leaving

I'm not quite sure why this photo calls to me this morning. It was taken a few years ago at St. Andrew's House, an Episcopal retreat center on the Hood Canal in Washington; this is the Great Room, where we could rest or read or socialize between class sessions.

I suspect I am drawn to the peace of it, to the warm colors within and the cool colors outside; to the quiet acceptance of the two readers, each lost in their own pondering; to the graceful domesticity of the scene.

One of my friends confessed yesterday that he cannot give himself permission "to just sit and read," and I realized that I have trouble with that, too. For me reading is something I mostly do when I am drinking my morning coffee or falling asleep at night. Which may be a part of why I love going on retreats: it's a time when I allow myself to take a break from the constant busy-ness -- to stop and sit; to listen, to read, to walk, to daydream, to ponder -- to allow new truths to well up from within.

Wouldn't it be lovely if we could give ourselves permission to build that sort of retreat time into our daily lives? Perhaps that should be another New Year's Resolution...