I'm thinking about going on a retreat.

A buddhist retreat. 

There are quite a few within a 8 hour drive from where I'm at.  Some are weekends, some are months long.  Some you have to pay for, some you don't...the ones that don't require cash ask that you pay 'in kind', that you bring some food items from their list of approved foods, or that you donate things like cushions or bed linens etc.  You're also required to do some manual work around the monastery....it's pretty much a commune.

I think that I'm almost at the point physically where I've gone as far as I can go solo.  I can read all the books I want to about meditation techniques, but nothing beats a seasoned Zen master showing me how to sit.  I find too that the physical presence of another bodhisattva is an amazingly calming force.  When I sit zazen alone, my mind becomes the proverbial 'chattering monkey'; tossing ideas out left and right when I'm trying to persuade it to be still.....having another person there helps quiet that.  It;s good too to have someone else, a like-minded person to talk to about the impermanence of everything and how there is no 'self', no 'I'.  I'm quite literally starved of that kind of conversation these days....

I haven't done anything for myself in years.  I get my hair done or buy clothes etc, but I haven't done anything really for ME.  D's been wanting to send me to a day spa for my birthday....I've told him I'd rather go on a weekend retreat instead.  He thinks I'm nuts.....who in their right mind would take getting up at 530am to meditate and prepare breakfast over a massage and a facial?

Me.  I would.  I'm not interested in pampering my body, I want to pamper my soul.  I want to be nourished spiritually.

Some people go to church to feed their souls.  I'm going on a retreat.