For my weekly writing spot on this site, see the One-Minute Mystic, with a new meditation posted every Monday. Also see The Village, the story of Misty Longings, England's most beautiful village, posted episode by episode earlier this year.       When is a retreat house not a retreat house? When it's a hotel; when it's multi-purpose; when, in short, it's a cash cow. A retreat house is a holding place. It is a generous space of comfort, serenity and the profound. Here, touched by beauty and security, the tangled human psyche can unwind, and find its happiness restored – risking inner adventure, amid such gracious outer calm. So a retreat house is not to be confused with a conference centre, for instance. A conference centre hosts conferences – places where people deliver talks, break up into small groups and have plenary sessions. It's a place for power point and stimulating discussion, which is fine – but it isn't a retreat. Neither is it to be confused with a hotel. A hotel provides you with physical amenities, including trouser press, eighteen sorts of breakfast and internet connections in every toilet. It offers complimentary soap, TV control from your bed, and a morning newspaper at your door, which is fine – but it isn't retreat. "This place exists for those on a spiritual journey," said one warden of a retreat house recently. He had a vision of space offered not to the highest bidder, but to any on an inner quest. How long will such places exist, however? As one who leads various retreats, it is my experience that open affordable spiritual space seems a species under threat. And as my friend said: "Once you stop being a retreat house – I'm not sure you can ever get back there." You can understand the new thinking. "We possess a nice venue here, and retreats are great, but hey! – we'd be mad not to diversify. Add an interactive white board or two, and we could host that day conference for solicitors. And of course there's good money to be made from weddings. So part retreat centre, part conference centre, part hotel – everyone's a winner, surely? Diversify or die!" Maybe. Or is it in fact: diversify and die? When Moses, Jesus and Paul retreated into the desert, we must be glad they were not sharing it with a noisy conference of shepherds and herdsmen doing some intense blue sky thinking. There are religious houses which will remain. No solicitors' conferences for them! They'll plough their furrow, and serve their particular niche market, which is all fine and dandy if you're in the furrow and of that niche. But if you're not; if you're seeking a journey less prescribed – well, then it's no room at the inn, and back to the phone book. A few days after his concentration camp had been liberated by the allies, Victor Frankl walked from the camp to a nearby village. Brutalised and numbed by his experiences, he was only slowly making his way back toward human feelings. So much lost; so much to be rediscovered inside. And as he walked, he found only one sentence in his head: "I called to the Lord from my narrow prison and he answered me in the freedom of space." Let us not retreat from offering such freedom of space today. More writings © Simon Parke