Our to do" daily lives are filled with "things lists, hectic schedules, working situations that are demanding and com-petitive in this recession. We often don’t even have time to do what we want to do, need to do or even contemplate what our purpose ought to be. Most of us don’t even have time to participate in volunteering for activist causes, let alone read all the email we get.

The question is, how do we replenish ourselves so we don’t freak out or burn out? How do we refuel our energies so we can stay on top of things?

I need occasional breaks from the computer, phone, emails, message machines and my perpetual to-do list. I have found three places in Santa Barbara County that are established to help people like ourselves. I have not been able to locate a place in SLO County. If anyone knows of one, please contact me.

La Case de Maria is nestled among the super-wealthy in Montecito, up in the mountains. A beautiful place: its gardens tended gracefully, its tennis court, basket-ball court and outdoor pool there for people to enjoy.

At La Casa there are usually workshops of a personal-, spiritual- or social-change slant. If you are look-ing for workshops, check the sched-ule of events on their website (http://www.lacasademaria.org/).

For silent retreats with minimal or no focus, check out their dates. They usually have these about once every other month. If you simply want to retreat in your own style and need to do it in a couple of weeks, contact Immaculate Heart Center (that is inside La Casa’s grounds). IHD has a beau-tiful two-story stone mansion converted into a monastery of sorts for their nuns, which offers spacious, beautiful rooms (for one or two people), individual baths, an ex-cellent spiritual library, and gourmet meals in the evening (breakfast and lunch from a buffet of delicious, often-local food). You can walk around La Casa (some 20 acres) and cross the bridge to enter the Reserve for more serious hiking. Or visit the small chapel, the church, sit by the creek, hang out at the usually vacant poolside, admire the views of oaks and eucalyptus, the fig and orange grove or the ocean: pleasures that breathe life back into your psyche and bones.

I usually take my things-to-do list, plug in my laptop and write book reviews that I can’t possibly do at the office. It’s what I’m doing right now as I look out onto a courtyard of poplars, roses, lavenders, jacarandas, lemon trees.

The nuns are wonderful and they are not proselytizers, which I’m very sensitive to. They invite you to mass and other scheduled prayers but do not require you to participate. I don’t. I simply breathe in the alive spirit of the land and buildings, after I’ve caught up on my sleep.

I’ve been going to La Casa for years and absolutely love the oaks and creek and old stone buildings, the pathways and the pool. I highly recom-mend either it or IMC. A third one is new to me. It’s called Mt. Calvary Retreat House and Monastery, a ministry of Benedictine hos-pitality offered by the monks of The Order of the Holy Cross. Its also in Santa Barbara, about 1200 feet above sea level, nestled in the mountains.

It has a different feel. It is primarily a monastery of eight monks. They have an exquisite library filling several rooms. The monks join the guests for meals. Only breakfast is silent. Lunch and dinner are energetic with conversation about their work in the community or hearing stories from guests who have come hundreds if not thousands of miles to retreat here. One such conversation with a novitiate was immensely reward-ing. He not only was responsile for creating the labyrinth of local rock behind the guest house but was keenly interested in the entire ecovillage movement, where he felt Christian monasteries could learn a few things about sustainability.

The bedrooms are way smaller than at IHC, but there are numerous spacious rooms around the complex with antique furniture, ornate lamps, old and comfort-able chairs, couches and sofas, a grandfa-ther clock. Relics from previous monaster-ies and old paintings line the halls. Patios and gardens surround the main building. The views are spectacular, and their bookstore is almost as good as the superb interfaith Vedanta Bookstore in Montecito. The monks have a side business of packag-ing coffee and tea. They have developed a special blend from a roaster in Ventura and package it at Mt. Calvary to help out their monastery.

Weekends are booked solid for about two years in advance, but they get occa-sional cancellations. They have a special Tuesday-through-Thursday retreat which is open irregularly. Call for an opening (see their ad in this issue). And if $75 a day is a bit steep, they also offer a work trade op-tion that is very good.

If you are like me, you need to stop once in a while, be quiet, listen to your soul’s stirrings as well as the global soul’s cry and begin to respond in calm, saner ways. Being at a retreat, for me, is also a way to reinvigorate my commitment, to compre-hend the oftentimes futile efforts of a single person and to inquire deeply as to "what’s next."

Bob Banner washes windows to pay the rent. He can be reached at windows@hopedance.org.