the elements of a refuge

I got home at 2:00 a.m. this morning from a trip to Orlando, where I was facilitating a day-long meeting yesterday. After a stay in a not very inviting hotel room, a fruitful and fun but intense day of work, and hours in the airport due to flight delays and mechanical problems, this morning I found my mind turning to the idea of refuge.

What are the elements of refuge for you? As I think about the various places that have served as a refuge for me in my life, here are some of the ingredients that are sifting to the surface:

A Sofa and a Spot of Tea

If I've had a tough day, all I want is to snuggle into the couch with a soft blanket on my lap, cozy socks on my feet, and watch a favorite movie. Hello, Room with a View or Pride and Prejudice! (Yes, for all my modern sensibilities, I am addicted to British period dramas.) The sofa becomes a warm cocoon, hidden and detached from the rest of the world. A hot cup of tea -- which can be a refuge in and of itself -- ups the cozy factor and also helps set the scene if your taste in movies runs similar to mine. No need to get as fancy as they did in this photo from Sunset. A simple mug will do.

Books

There's nothing like a good book to help you escape from the world for a while. One of my all time favorite refuges is the library at the Mountain Quest Inn in Frost, WV., with its 20,000 volumes on topics dear to my heart (organizational development, leadership, creativity, psychology, spirituality, etc.), and a baby grand piano in the middle of it all. I could spend days in there reveling in a world of ideas. In fact, I have spent the good part of a couple of days in there, and both times I emerged feeling energized and excited to return to the world again to apply some of the new concepts and connections I had discovered there. This library in a house designed by Feldman Architecture (image via Houzz) is a (smaller and brighter) contemporary cousin to the one at Mountain Quest.

A Cozy Corner

Like most people, I improvised many secret hideaways as a kid -- out of sofa cushions and blankets, under tables, from giant cardboard delivery boxes, or from little openings out in the brambly woods behind our house. As adults, we all still have times when we crave this same feeling of having our own private little space away from the world, that sense of safe enclosure. That's just what Tommie Wilhelmsen has achieved in this cozy corner, with its soft cushions and enclosing walls, yet with a vantage point into the activity of the room beyond, and with light streaming in from outside. Which leads us to my next ingredient...

Sunlight

Sunlight has such a powerful effect on me, and I know I'm not alone in this. It can boost my energy, clear my mind, lift my mood. When we renovated our house, an explicit goal of the project was to bring more natural light into our interior spaces. And it's had the intended effect. There was something especially restorative about the shower I took this morning in our new bathroom, with morning sunlight streaming in on me through the bank of windows across the room. This photo from Coastal Living creates that same feeling for me. It reminds me too of quiet time I've spent by the ocean in the Fall, curled in a chair, wearing a cozy sweater and writing in my journal, with the gentle sunlight washing away my cares and spotlighting for me what's most important in my life. Like any good refuge, sunlit spaces renew my spirit.

Simplicity

Our lives can feel so full and complicated. Sometimes refuge is about paring away all the noise, clutter, and activity, so we can get back to the basics: A hug from someone you love. The taste of a fresh peach. Your own peaceful breaths, going in, going out. This kitchen by VASD captures this kind of simplicity for me. Can't you just feel your bare feet on the stone floor? Doesn't the room make you want to cook nothing but really simple, healthy food? And doesn't it make it seem, at this moment, like there's little else you need in the world beyond your bare feet and your simple food, that loving hug and your own easy breathing?

So, weigh in. What spells out REFUGE for you?