Someone has suggested that certain qualities of writing apply to art and film: focus—balance—simplicity—beauty. They could well apply to a simple self-designed 'retreat day' in the midst of the usual day.

Consider yourself a film-director for a day in your life. Focus on one thing more consciously throughout the day, perhaps a leaf-changing tree or bush out a window, an old photograph, an art work, a family member in conversation, a co-worker, the sky. Focus on focusing. Enter into the present. As Mother Teresa has suggested: Do what is right in front of you. Concentrate on the immediate. Notice the details of a picture, a tree, a face. Look through the lens of a camera or iPad or cell phone not to take a picture but to use the vision area as a frame for whatever is viewed. There may be something featured through that limiting framing that would otherwise be missed.

Metaphorically, consider framing moments and events and encounters of the day for fuller concentrated attention so that experiences and interactions can be taken in to your perceptions for the value they have.

Focusing on whatever is before you is a prayer. Focusing on whoever is before you is a prayer of reverence. Focusing on your inner self can be a holy act . . . . Focusing leads to contemplation. Wordless attention, surrender of the soul to beauty, the heart to love.

Make a conscious choice to achieve balance at least for this one retreat-like day. Start from a platform of a good night's sleep and a nurturing breakfast. Schedule in some outdoor time. Be sure that work is balanced with play. The Book of Wisdom indicates that Jesus, the Word, Wisdom, was "playing in the world" at Creation. As a recent ted.com talk asserted: Taking time to play amidst the day renews energy for work, fosters creative problem-solving and stimulates creativity. Thus play puts things in perspective. Indeed, play increases our openness to change. Not everything is of dire urgency or imposing importance. We don't have to do everything, just take time for things of lasting value.

Choosing simplicity in prayer for the day might involve saying a favorite prayer morning, mid-day, mid-afternoon, and evening and closing the day at night. Or choose a line of the Gospels or epistles or the psalms to mull over. Complement simple praying with simple eating and/or appreciative eating—aka savoring. Repeat a mantra on the hour: You are All in All . . . You are Fullness of Joy . . . Encircle Me with Your Love . . . Enliven Me with Your Spirit.

The fruits of focusing, of simplifying, of balancing will include a recognition of beauty in yourself, in others, in creation, in the evolving season, in your activities of work and play. Naming a day, any day, a retreat day, increases perception of the day's holiness.

No matter how you contour your own self-designed Retreat Day, it is Your Day.





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Requested By	Requested For	Relationship	Specific Prayer
M Sandau	Julie Robertson and her husband Kirk	Family of a friend	For Julie who was in a helicopter crash in New Jersey last week and her husband who has cancer. (They have a one year old.)