I would hazard a guess here and say that everyone has a favorite place they consider their retreat. This is the place they retreat to, when faced with a problem or when they need that flash of inspiration or when they just want to pause and take stock of life. In case this place happens to be the bathroom, this is also the place they retreat to when nature calls.
Anyway, just like everyone out there, I have a retreat too. My room. It's my office away from office, it's my gym, it's my dance floor, it's my place to hide when I don't feel social enough to engage in meaningless banter with the guests at home. In short, it's my den. And I am the lion. The alpha male (though that might be due to the fact that I am in there usually with only myself as company). Being a floor removed from any kind of human contact, this is my place to do all those things people do in a retreat.
As befitting a den, in the original sense of that word, mine doesn't have much in terms of furniture. There is a set of built-into-the-wall closets where the bulk of my stuff sits. Or stands or whatever it is that stuff does in a closet. And carrying the torch for furniture is the mismatched pair of slightly high table and slightly low chair. On this table can be found all the reasons why my den is my den. Acting as perfect example for the oxymoronic phrase 'ordered chaos', it is currently groaning under the weight of my discarded clothes, freshly pressed clothes, my laptops, my laptop speakers and other assorted accessories, multiple back issues of different auto and bike magazines, issues of Reader's Digest going back to sometime last year and other random books, book-lets, papers, pens, cds and stuff. All this is under a thin sheen of the ever present dust with a few strategically placed cob webs to give it that antique look.
That's it. There's nothing else in the room to mar its pristine simplicity. Once I shut the door and switch off all lights, I can sit leaning against one of the walls and stare without focus into the darkness, simply for the joy of hearing the wheels in my brain whir. Bliss!!
Anyway, just like everyone out there, I have a retreat too. My room. It's my office away from office, it's my gym, it's my dance floor, it's my place to hide when I don't feel social enough to engage in meaningless banter with the guests at home. In short, it's my den. And I am the lion. The alpha male (though that might be due to the fact that I am in there usually with only myself as company). Being a floor removed from any kind of human contact, this is my place to do all those things people do in a retreat.
As befitting a den, in the original sense of that word, mine doesn't have much in terms of furniture. There is a set of built-into-the-wall closets where the bulk of my stuff sits. Or stands or whatever it is that stuff does in a closet. And carrying the torch for furniture is the mismatched pair of slightly high table and slightly low chair. On this table can be found all the reasons why my den is my den. Acting as perfect example for the oxymoronic phrase 'ordered chaos', it is currently groaning under the weight of my discarded clothes, freshly pressed clothes, my laptops, my laptop speakers and other assorted accessories, multiple back issues of different auto and bike magazines, issues of Reader's Digest going back to sometime last year and other random books, book-lets, papers, pens, cds and stuff. All this is under a thin sheen of the ever present dust with a few strategically placed cob webs to give it that antique look.
That's it. There's nothing else in the room to mar its pristine simplicity. Once I shut the door and switch off all lights, I can sit leaning against one of the walls and stare without focus into the darkness, simply for the joy of hearing the wheels in my brain whir. Bliss!!
5 comments:
Leaning into the cobwebs, nice, nice. :)
Nice Description of your retreat!
Thank you. Glad you liked it. :)
what about the balcony with the really neat jasmine creeper that has wrapped itself all the way upthe pillar? What about the nightqueen by the garage that exudes its gentle fragrance into your den ?
Those are outside the den. I was talking about the inside. :)
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