It’s good to be away from everything and to retreat from the world for a little while, to focus on a specific piece of work or specific set of ideas, but I find the framing of being ‘on retreat’ really strange

I know it means stepping back from things, and that’s an appropriate use of the word when you’re stepping back from things to focus. But it has that connotation of backing away from a fight, that you’re retreating rather than them facing something.

And then I wonder if that’s why people have trouble stopping. Why they might have difficulty turning their attention to one particular thing, even for a short period of time. Perhaps they are thinking of that as turning away from the other things they ‘should’ be facing.

Or, and this is entirely possible, I may be overthinking this because I’m tired.