This word “RETREAT” is a very old word. It dates back to the 1300s in France.
As used today, this word has many variable meanings such as:
-A hiding place
-Turn around; back down
-Seclusion; privacy
-Vacation home, etc.…
-Asylum as for the insane
When I first think of the word retreat, I think of myself as to where I go for deep thinking. When I retreat, I withdraw into myself.
I can remember back in my early childhood retreating into a world of fantasy.I was 7 years old in 1947, when I adopted a make-believe family. I could summon this family anytime I wanted to.This phenomenon, yes a phenomenon, was crazy but so real to me.
I can remember this phenomenon occurring just before waking up and carrying it to the breakfast table.The wall of the breakfast room became a screen of action. It happened so frequently, and I went in so deep that my parents became very concerned. Sometimes I had to be shaken to come back to reality. The doctors told my parents I would grow out of it.
On one occasion when I was 5, my mother was trying to teach me how to roller skate. She ended up with bruised shins and sore toes. I had learned nothing. During the night I retreated back to the scene of the previous day, without Mom. I strapped and buckled my “J.C. Higgins” on, stood up, and one foot in front of the other and…?
The next morning, I asked Mom to go outside with me and showed her how to skate. She was speechless and asked how. I said I dreamed it. I just didn’t know how to put it any other way.
I’ve had several other similar experiences in my life. One day I can’t retreat, yet the next day I can.
Now, at the present, it’s not fantasy but deep thoughts solving personal problems and anything that deeply concerns me.
Also, as an adult I can go into my retreat during TV viewing. I hear nothing, and although being in front of the TV, I see nothing, just what is in my mind.Normally I will come out of my retreat by falling asleep or being touched (hard) by my wife. There is no time limit.