The Backwards Step

In Buddhism, they talk of "retreats" and "taking refuge."

This used to confuse me.  It sounded like running away from the world.  If the whole point of practice was to experience the here and now as it actually is, wasn't all of this retreating and taking refuge just avoiding the very thing with which we were supposed to be engaging?

I understand the words differently now.  Now I see both terms as referring to taking a backwards step, just as one might do when one wants to see something more clearly or with a little more perspective, just as one might do before taking a running, head-first leap into that from which one just stepped back.

Corollary lesson: if you're sparring with a martial arts opponent, don't necessarily think she's running away from you if she takes a backwards step.