Ahh, there’s nothing like a little retreat to rest the body and mind and reinvigorate the soul. And no, I’m not talking about withdrawing from enemy forces after a defeat … or maybe I am …
But I digress. As I was saying, there’s nothing better to refresh ourselves than taking a day or two or more–preferably more!–to get away from our normal setting and routines, to turn off the phones or TV’s or video games, to take a break from work or family or life demands and just be.
Ahhh. Aren’t your muscles relaxing already?
I took such a break this past weekend, as I do annually (see The Joy of Retreat). This time I brought along fellow author and friend, Stacy Monson (who, by the way, has her debut novel, One of Me, coming out June 1–hooray Stacy!).
We took off on Friday, making an all-important stop at Fannie May in Woodbury to get chocolate (quality chocolate for retreats, don’tchyaknow!). Then we headed to Wisconsin, where Stacy drove through rain, sleet, snow, ice … (did I miss anything, Stacy?) and slid into Christmas Mountain Village in Wisconsin Dells–sort of. 😉 As I said, it was a tad bit icy. But we arrived unscathed.
We each had our own townhome unit: Stacy’s was a one bedroom and mine a two bedroom with a huge Jacuzzi. The units were connected with lock-off doors, so we were able to chat, but we were also able to shut the doors for those times when we were in the writing zone and didn’t want to be interrupted.
Stacy accomplished a lot, and me? Well, I smartly copied all my work from my home desktop to my Dropbox account so I could access it on my laptop. Well, wouldn’tchyaknow, Dropbox experienced technical difficulties all weekend. So, no, I didn’t get any writing done, but I did read all of William Kent Krueger‘s latest, Tamarack County. And honestly, I was happy for the respite.
Then Sunday at noon, it was time to pack and head back home. The retreat was far too short, but I was grateful for the moments to relax and, even more so, I was blessed to spend valuable time with a good friend. I can’t wait to go again next year, and I’m pretty certain Stacy will be tagging along with me.