(Can't) Beat a Retreat!

It's called "The Haven," a medium-size room at the Quaker Retreat Center in the Santa Cruz Mountains, where I and my friend took ourselves for a (very) short retreat, to write and do art. What we gained, a break from time itself, a stepping away from worries and woes. I wrote a good 12 pages and did some drawing; my friend put in some good time toward her manuscript about death and dying. We remembered why we are so grateful to be alive.