What Does It Mean to “Retreat”?
Standing on the Cape Cod sand dunes in Provincetown, MA last spring, I looked out over several “dune shacks” where many artists and writers over the years have retreated to in order to rekindle their creativity or to work on a major project, sometimes in community with others, sometimes alone.
Monks and other spiritual teachers whose work I have studied talk about silent and solo retreats as a chance to deepen one’s relationship with their higher power or their source. The military also talks about retreat-ing when they are in a difficult and dangerous situation and need to protect themselves and regroup on their strategy.
Teaching is both an art and a spiritual endeavor. Teachers need retreat time, too. And, no, I am not talking about just having summers off to rest and play. That, too, is important. But a retreat is different.
I am talking about intentional time to step back, like artists and monks and the military do to reflect, to focus, to create something new. We need time and space to focus on our own creativity, our own spirituality, our strategy, our well-being.
I am a retreat geek. I have been going on retreats in person since I was in college. Prior to COVID, all retreats involved leaving the place where I lived. A lake house in Alabama, the basement of the National Cathedral in DC, a Benedictine monastery in Maryland, a beach at Cape Cod, a yoga center in Western Massachusetts, an island off the coast of Maine.
The two times in my life when retreats were especially important were when I was in my first years as a teacher and when I was a principal. These were times when I was struggling so much in my job, and it was “retreating” that helped me process and transform that struggle into productive struggle and learning. The retreats I went on involved others, often people I did not know, which in some ways was incredibly freeing to get to know lives outside my immediate circle.
Living during COVID and being a parent of two children has taught me a few things about retreats that are really important. First, I have learned that retreats don’t actually have to be that long to have a restorative and transformational effect. Second, they don’t have to involve leaving my own home to connect with others across diverse geographies. Third, they don’t have to cost so much.
What if we could retreat for 60 to 90 minutes each week versus withdrawing from the world for a weekend or a week? And, what if we could do that for the price of say a yoga class or a dinner out with dessert? This is why I started The Teacher Sanctuary, so as many teachers as possible can easily access the healing power and restorative effects of retreat-ing, especially now, when teaching and leading in schools is so complicated.
