The Haiku Retreat Report

Well done Haikuers!
I am impressed.
 Definitely with this collection of clever entries  but equally as much by the commonalities. It is somehow a comfort to lean how many of us can be completely restored to self by going home.
To Mother Earth.
To Our Father.

These offerings take us to mountain tops,
to woods of every season,
to the ocean and,
to our own back yards.
To the stars for directions
and home to be spooned.
For some the best retreat is a little quality time with the backs of our eyelids or getting comfy on the couch.

There were lines in haikus which spawned visions in my mind:
Being a fishy , water retreats beckoned from the keystrokes of Serendipity and Aunty:
 "calm water sunrise",
 "on ocean's azure edge",

Okay, my bags are packed!

Winter is my least favorite season. Clearly I am missing something wonderful as depicted in these lines:
" mountain light dances"
"outlined in white crayon snow"
"Winter quiet respite"
then onward  to Czar's locale for thawing a "Wintering soul"

Alas! there is the  hard part of hosting this great game.
Who wins?
Well all of us in a general sense.
But there is that pesky obligation to declare just one as a winner. Does anyone ever find this an easy task?
Who could not love Aunty's concept of God dancing with his creation? Or how about Grumpy Granny's following the yellow arrows of the Camino to point TheWay...step by solo step?

I narrowed my choices down to two.
Each  illustrates a retreat readily available to all:
 From our Grinning Curmudgeon:

On my Winter walk
weaving in the spots of sun
my dark shadows melt

I loved every line of this!
Loved this message of  accessibility.
Not all of us can make it to the Camino but most of us can make the trip out our own back doors.
Granny's "step by solo step" on The Way is,(confirmed by Aunty), a life altering experience. But here, in the land of Grins the combined rhythms of each right foot, left foot progression to patches of light will indeed free our spirits as our personal dark shadows melt.  For me at least, there is  here the message of God's accessibility for all of us, everywhere, for reasons large or small.  Even if this particular take is not yours the great brilliance  of this haiku message is we all have ready access to a personal retreat by going for a walk.

There are times though, when the very calmness of a walk  in the mountains, woods , beach or just to the retreat in the back yard is insufficient to the screaming, pulsing, imperative need for action. And speed. Who would know that need any better than a man who spends his waking hours beneath the surface? If calm is his norm is not action his retreat?  Karl, our very own double oh adventurer,  gave us this present:

Rubber on the road
Playing the Valkyrie ride
Victory! Dig it.

Who among us has not retreated to a fizzing ride with howling music and  the cadence of rotating  rubber screaming down the road to  eradicate our angst?
Or elevate our spirits
or  liberate our joy?

 If keeping pace with  Wagner isn't your thing no matter. Don't we all have music which taps into our spirits like no other? Is it not wonderful we can  use this combination of man, machine, music and speed as medicine du jour?  Oh yeah, get your motor running and head out to the highway.    I confess when I go on this retreat I retract the roof, open all the windows,  put in a cd, crank up the volume and head for a two lane ribbon road where the natural strobing  effect of sunlight through the pine forests sync my soul to nature.
Oh! Just exactly like the trip we took with GC on foot .... melting away our darknesses.

Congratulations to our Grinning Curmudgeon for the win!
Hopefully we will all trek over to your place next week.
Should you be unable to host then hopefully Karl will step up.