“Whether it’s a weekend getaway or a long pilgrimage, stepping away from our usual places and faces has a way of opening us to new things.... Retreat is a critical practice for finding freedom from gridlock and gaining the imaginative insights needed to move forward.” –Andy Stanton-Henry, Fruit of the Vine

Query: Where do you find quiet space in your life?

The First Wet Kiss

It’s the nesting of birds in spring,

long hours on the shell of unknowing,

the hardness of it, the hopefulness,

knowing that finally the shell will break

and there will be the first wet kiss on the wing.

Such is the meditator

who sits on the nest of her breath

for hours and years,

sure that someday the shell of her ego will break

and her Self will take the first deep breath of life.

–Carol Bialock, Coral Castles