Henry David Thoreau had the rare opportunity to withdraw from conventional life.\u00a0 He built a small cabin in the woods and examined the rich experience of living as simply as possible.\u00a0 Through his experience of removing all distraction he was able to slow down, remove the pressure of public opinion,\u00a0 and think about the meaning and purpose of life.<\/p>\n
Many great thinkers have taken time to withdraw from the busyness of daily life.\u00a0 Jesus was chief among these, he frequently withdrew to the wilderness to pray (Luke 5:16).\u00a0 Retreating in this way is important.\u00a0 Removing one’s-self from distraction to remain focused on identity, to clarify purpose, and simply to rest allows for success and balance.\u00a0 Staff retreats, board retreats, and family retreats provide this same important practice.<\/p>\n
As I examine my own life, it is filled with family, friends, co-workers, students and a great many others.\u00a0 I find that these relationships provide the purpose for my effort.\u00a0 While life can become busy and complicated and require sometimes constant attention to remain focused on purpose, it would not be fulfilling if lived in another fashion.\u00a0 In as much as Thoreau had to withdraw for two years to determine the most real and valuable elements of living, there is something so sharp and real about remaining true to your character, centered on purpose, and being wholly focused on another person while at the end of a full and complex day or week.\u00a0 At a glance, I appreciate the exercise but ultimately find Thoreau’s retreat to be a privileged and selfish experiment void of the wealth found in relationship.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, however Thoreau’s exhortation to seek simplicity (Watson, 1951 p. 234) is a lesson I will choose to hear.\u00a0 Life can quickly allow me to become buried in the details of the urgent or distracted by things which shouldn’t be important.\u00a0 Seeking to align my approach to the words of Paul speaking to the Philippians “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry,\u00a0whether living in plenty or in want.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/sup>I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”<\/span><\/p>\n How often or in what way do you take time to retreat?<\/p>\n Reference<\/strong><\/p>\n Watson, L.E. (1951).\u00a0Light from Many Lamps. New York: Simon and Schuster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Henry David Thoreau had the rare opportunity to withdraw from conventional life.\u00a0 He built a small cabin in the woods and examined the rich experience of living as simply as possible.\u00a0 Through his experience of removing all distraction he was able to slow down, remove the pressure of public opinion,\u00a0 and think about the meaning […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":350,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,30,1,37],"tags":[23],"class_list":["post-237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ldrs500","category-lightfrommanylamps","category-uncategorized","category-unit8","tag-light-from-many-lamps","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/principalmorrow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/principalmorrow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/principalmorrow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/principalmorrow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/350"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/principalmorrow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/principalmorrow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":240,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/principalmorrow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237\/revisions\/240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/principalmorrow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/principalmorrow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/principalmorrow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}