I had the pleasure of getting away for a couple of days this past week to the beautiful Sorrento Centre, on the shores of Shuswap Lake.

 That experience had me reflecting on the spiritual practice of getting away. It can be a very helpful discipline to take a break, to remove yourself from your everyday reality.

 Specific places can sometimes be very important for this practice, but it can also be done without going anywhere. In some ways, it is more of a mindset, where one makes space for themselves, and for God. For some people, church might be a part of that spiritual practice of getting away, or prayer, or hiking, or visiting family and friends, or going on road trips…

 The spiritual practice of getting away is very ancient. For centuries people have gone on retreat or journeyed onpilgrimages. Some have even oriented their whole lives around the practice of getting away by joining monastic and other intentional religious communities.

 Sometimes it might be suggested that getting away is a form of escapism – a way of disengaging with the world. However, I think that this is a misunderstanding of the practice. At its best, the spiritual practice of getting away is actually about engaging more rather than less deeply in the world and in your life.

 So, my question for you is how do you practice getting away? Is there a special place for you, or activity or person that helps you make time for yourself and for God?

 How can you cultivate this spiritual practice, even more regularly, so that you may be upheld and sustained, so that you may withdraw to again return and engage even more fully in this life you have been given?

 

CG+