{"id":7956,"date":"2013-06-12T12:12:28","date_gmt":"2013-06-12T19:12:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/?p=7956"},"modified":"2026-01-21T16:31:32","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T00:31:32","slug":"sometimes-retreat-advance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/2013\/06\/12\/sometimes-retreat-advance\/","title":{"rendered":"Sometimes a Retreat is an Advance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019d sunk into a swamp of depression. Why bother going? It was only overnight. I cancelled, one day too late to get a refund. So I went.<\/p>\n<p>Nearly there, I found the road blocked. The tunnel said \u201cUnder construction.\u201d What next? Go back home? Try to find another way and arrive late? No and no.<\/p>\n<p>So I broke rules. I drove around the barricade and through the tunnel. There was no ditch to fall into, no rubble to hit. I arrived. I showed up.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.karenmaezenmiller.com\">Teacher<\/a> saw me and leaped with joy \u2013 literally! She hugged me, and I began to cry. Twenty of us sat in slience; we walked in silence. Zazen is painful drudgery. But the tears subsided. <\/p>\n<p>I sat. I counted my breaths. I walked. I ate. I slept. I met privately with my teacher.<\/p>\n<p>Sick of being mom, managing my child? Then be an easy mother!<br \/>\nLonely? Get out of the Internet echo chamber. Talk to a person.<br \/>\nBored? Reflect on what resonates; listen for my voice.<br \/>\nScared about new responsibility? Just show up. Do the next task.<br \/>\nStop hiding in the house. The world is right here and now.  <\/p>\n<p>Later, walking on the beach alone, I found rusty rose starfish washed ashore. It fit the palm of my hand. It was alive! Waiting for a return ride on the tide.<\/p>\n<p>Hello, friend. <\/p>\n<p>I looked up. Saw a man. Decided this discovery was too good to keep to myself. So I went up to him and shared. And he smiled and marveled. And then I did it again, with a woman jogging. And again, with another woman! <\/p>\n<p>Their eyes widened, awakened. They smiled with the joy of the encounter. <\/p>\n<p>Hello, friend.<br \/>\n****************************<\/p>\n<p>Words swept from my mind<br \/>\nScatter like moths in the wind<br \/>\nWave meets rock meets wave<\/p>\n<div class=\"photopost\"> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/mindfulone\/501367710\/\" title=\"seal rocks, or by Mindful One, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm1.staticflickr.com\/223\/501367710_2f767cefdb.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" alt=\"seal rocks, or\"><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019d sunk into a swamp of depression. Why bother going? It was only overnight. I cancelled, one day too late to get a refund. So I went. Nearly there, I found the road blocked. The tunnel said \u201cUnder construction.\u201d What next? Go back home? Try to find another way and arrive late? No and no. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[111,48,217,16,219],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buddhism","category-community","category-meditation","category-nature","category-spirit"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7956"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11930,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7956\/revisions\/11930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}