Retreat

The word conjures images of battle weary soldiers in the thick of confrontation, hearing that blessed trumpet call to fall back and regroup. Come away from the heat, noise and confusion. Tend your wounds, refresh you tired body. Eat. Shower. Rest. I'm not sure my staff is as overwhelmed as all that, but this retreat comes at the end of our first year in the new building, the first year with a new organization, new tasks, new responsibilities. We already took a deep breath in January and assessed how things were going. Now we look ahead, plan for the fall semester, figure out what can slough away, what needs strengthening. Adjust our alignment.

There have been times when I longed to get away to some secluded and quiet place where I could clear the clutter from my head. When the demands of life have been the greatest, the daydream of finding some space where I can spend a week in total silence, wandering about carefully manicured grounds, my face kissed by the warm sun, my eyes bathed with the beauty of nature’s greenery, has intruded the most strongly on my subconscious.

Yet for this retreat, while we need to be away from the usual daily hubbub to think better, it is not quiet and seclusion we seek, but vision and clarity. Sometimes you get so accustomed to doing the sameold sameold that you forget why you are doing it. Or whether you still need to continue doing it - at least in the same way.

So we trekked to the Meridian Center on the far side of town, hunkered down around documents and ideas, looked at suggestions and jotted memos, invited the Provost to speak words of life to us, met with a Marketing professor to see what we should be aiming at, and drew up some plans while we munched on Tim Horton's pastries and Full Belly Deli sandwiches washed down with plenty of iced tea.

At the end of the day, we came away with some good ideas and a few steps to enact to set things in motion. We will take our ideas to the rest of the library departments and refine and adapt as necessary. But it felt good. We work together well. Its going to be a good year.