Voices in the Night: Stories

ARCADIA

Welcome

Are you tired of life’s burdens? Welcome to Arcadia, a peaceful woodland retreat founded over one hundred years ago to meet the needs of a very special clientele. Located on more than 2,000 acres of gently rolling spruce and pine forest, Arcadia offers a variety of comfortable and affordable accommodations suited to every taste. Choose among our 48 cozy two-room log cabins, each with stone fireplace and knotty pine paneling, our 36 three-room cottages with private patio, and, for persons with special needs, our 12 guest rooms and suites on the second floor of the Estate. Whatever your age or condition, our expert staff of highly trained Life Counselors and Transition Facilitators will see to your every wish as they work tirelessly with you to help you achieve your personal goal. Although we pride ourselves on our award-winning success rate, which over the past five years has averaged a gratifying 97 %, we understand that each individual must advance at his/her own pace. Here at Arcadia we are committed to serving you in a manner most compatible with your particular lifestyle and temperament as together we find the method that will best result in a successful outcome.

Accommodations

Each cabin and cottage is situated on a tract of lush woodland set off by attractive fencing that assures maximum privacy while allowing easy access to all public places, such as trails, streams, and lakes, as well as the deep gorges that are a popular and much-loved feature of our retreat. All cabins and cottages come with fully equipped kitchen, comfy bedroom, modern bath with shower, and screened front porch with cushioned Adirondack chairs and glider. All beds have premium plush mattresses and triple sheeting in luxurious linens. Refrigerators are stocked with bottles of fresh spring water. Although our program policy does not permit computers or cell phones, each cabin and cottage comes equipped with a convenient and easy-to-use touch-tone phone that allows direct twenty-four-hour communication with the Main Office, located to the left of the entrance on the first floor of the Estate. Meals are prepared in our own kitchen and delivered right to your doorstep three times a day by our specially trained Food Delivery Personnel. Our program encourages and protects your privacy and solitude, but members of our staff are available for a talk or a personal visit at any time of the day or night as you make your way toward the decisive moment.

Residents

Our residents hail from all fifty states and five territories, as well as from nations the world over. We welcome guests of all races, all walks of life, all religious and nonreligious orientations. If you are weary and seek rest, if you are heart-sore and cannot find your way, Arcadia is the place for you. Do you feel you have come to the end of the line? Does life seem to hold no promise? Do you wake up each day wishing you had never been born? Look no further. Our doors are open wide. We are here to lend a helping hand. All you who feel that life is without meaning, all you who can’t bear it for another second but bear it anyway, you who feel unloved, unseen, unwanted, forgotten: Come to us. We will show you the way.

Testimonial #1

After the terrible accident I wouldn’t leave my house for two months. All I could see was my wife and five-year-old son screaming in the flaming car. I slept badly in short snatches during the day and roamed the empty house all night, stopping in different rooms. I left the lights on in every room and never changed the bulbs. They went out one by one. In the end I was living in the dark. The dark felt right. A friend tried to rescue me. I went to grief counseling but they wanted to take my grief away which was all I had. One day in a doctor’s office I opened a magazine and saw an ad for Arcadia. This place has changed everything. After only ten days I know myself for the first time and I know what it is that I have to do. They make you see everything clearly here. Nothing will stop me now. Thank you, Arcadia.

Transition Facilitators

Our skilled and friendly staff of Transition Facilitators will provide you with the kind of personalized attention that lies at the heart of our innovative program. A facilitator will be assigned to you on the day of your arrival and you will meet with him/her on a regular day-to-day basis. In addition to these private instructional sessions, your facilitator may ask you to attend one or more motivational group discussions in order to enhance the decision-making process. Our goal is your goal: the overcoming of obstacles. Each of our residents has more than one obstacle to overcome before confronting the final one. Our results-oriented program is specially geared to your needs and we will work with you twenty-four seven to help you achieve a viable solution.

Gorges

The fourteen gorges that cut through our retreat offer an abundance of natural beauty and unique opportunity. Steep, rocky cliffs plunge some three hundred feet toward fast-moving rapids. The cliff-tops are dangerous and only partially protected by old and damaged railings. Narrow, unrailed walkways traverse the gorges and provide breathtaking views of the surrounding countryside and the rapids far below. Rocks continually fall from the cliffsides and may sometimes be heard over the sound of rushing cascades and waterfalls. These gorges are among our most sought-after attractions, drawing residents to the crumbling cliff-tops and unrailed walkways at all times of the day and night.

Testimonial #2

Before I came here I was lonely and depressed and cried every day like a little girl even though I am a grown woman of twenty-eight. I have always been like this because something is wrong with me and nobody knows what it is except I don’t look right especially my head. When I was little the other children made fun of me and called me names and later boys used me and were cruel. I have tried religion but that didn’t work and I have tried cutting open my wrists but I never knew how to do it right. My life was a dark place and a living hell and there was no way out for me until one day I heard of this place. Here it isn’t anything like the way it is out there. They talk to you and tell you things you need to hear. They show you the things that are getting in your way and they show you how to overcome them and follow your inner voices. Now I know what I have to do and I am ready. Before that time comes I just want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone here at Arcadia especially my facilitator John who has helped me see the way. It has really meant a lot to me.

Failure

One reason for the high success rate of our time-tested program is our understanding of the role of failure in helping you accomplish your long-term objective. Your success is our ultimate aim, but success does not come to everyone in the same way or over the same period of time. Our facilitators understand that failure is sometimes a necessary step on your personal journey. What is failure? you may ask yourself. Failure is a form of hesitation. It means you are not yet ready. We will show you that the act of failure contains within it the secret you are looking for. We will teach you to welcome your failure, to make it part of yourself in order to overcome it. Our motto is: The Road of Failure leads to the Palace of Success. Do you find yourself hesitating on the brink? Do you have a tendency to draw back at the last moment? Are you afraid? Do not be discouraged. The act of hesitation is a gathering of energy. Failure is success that has not yet been given a chance to reveal itself completely.

Motivational Witness Program

For those in search of motivational inspiration, our Motivational Witness Program can provide just the boost you need. You may sign up for this popular program as either a witness or a principal. The principal is motivated by the presence of witnesses, who in turn are inspired by the act of witnessing to pursue the same method or select a different one. Further details are available in Informational Packet 3A at the Main Office.

Testimonial #3

Big shout-out to all the good folks in Arcadia for a really great program. I wasn’t really all that motivated when I first came out here but now I’m revved up and rarin’ to go. One thing I really like is the Motivational Witness Program, where you can get to see how other rezzies make their choices. That’s what I like about this place — you find out what’s right for you and then you go do it. Trust me on this one. Long story short: I’m psyched.

The Lakes of Arcadia

The lakes of Arcadia are peaceful, still, and deep. Enclosed by gently sloping wooded hills, our lakes are readily accessed by easy-to-walk trails, many of which were formed hundreds of years ago at a time when Native American tribes settled in the area. The pristine beauty of our ancient lakes stimulates meditation and resolution. Although speedboats, Jet Skis, and motorized watercraft of any kind are strictly prohibited on our noise-free lakes, residents are encouraged to make use of the rowboats and canoes that you will find waiting for you at many points along the quiet shores. Small, wooded islands are found in many of the larger lakes, and for some residents the islands with their dark trees and magisterial branches prove more inviting than the lakes themselves, with their silent waters that go down, far down, to depths that no one has ever measured.

The Two Hopes

The first hope is the hope that diverts you from your task. It is the hope that calls you back, the hope that promises a return to a way of life that is the old way but somehow better, wiser, healthier, happier. This is the hope of delusion. The second hope is the hope that is not deceived by hope. It is the hope that abandons hope. This is the true hope, the only hope, the hope that will lead you to lasting peace.

Caverns

Feel free to explore the unparalleled wonders of our underground caverns, celebrated for their beauty and danger. Entrances both marked and unmarked are found throughout Arcadia: in the sides of wooded hills, in forest pits and sinkholes, in lakeside banks and abandoned mines. Sometimes at the side of a trail you will come upon manmade steps, going down. Descend. Our ancient limestone caverns are artificially illuminated for short distances only, before the dark begins. Deep underground, away from the sun and sky, you may wander alone with your thoughts for hours along dark passageways that open onto plunging waterfalls or black, tranquil pools. Often a passageway will have a winding ledge along one side, overlooking a deep fissure or crevasse. Make sure to feel along walls for cracks and crevices, some of which will be wide enough to admit a human form. These openings will lead you to still darker adventures.

Testimonial #4

My life was neither good nor bad, very quiet and ordinary, then I fell in love with a good man who loved me back and my whole life changed. Every morning I woke with a burning happiness, happiness like a flame. I looked forward so much to seeing him, my good man, my beloved, everything I looked at was fresh and glowing in the burning light of my love. And even though the man I loved was married, what did I care, we had each other, he was my one, my only, my sweetheart, he made me feel so alive, my lovely good man. Sometimes he wasn’t able to be with me and this was hard, the times in between were not always burning with happiness, sometimes they were burning with loneliness. I wanted him in my life not as a lover only but as a heart-companion, I thought how lovely it would be to do simple everyday things together, shopping and laughing and walking around town holding hands, but he said we had to be careful because he didn’t want to hurt his wife. And I understood that, he was a good man, a gentle man, but I said you don’t want to hurt her but you’re hurting me. When I didn’t see him my life felt empty and dark, he was a good man but weak, a weak man, and I hated myself for thinking of him as a weak man but he was hurting me and I couldn’t stand it. The only choice I had was to accept things as they were, which meant accepting my life as an empty lonely waiting, there were times I would wake up in the night feeling his body beside me but the bed was cold, he was with her, in their happy home. He was a good man but weak, a weak man who couldn’t hurt anyone but he was hurting me, he was murdering me with his goodness and his poisonous weakness. Sometimes I thought back to the time when my life was quiet and ordinary and it felt like a peaceful lovely land I could never see again. Now all my days were long and full of a sort of quiet twisting anguish, the lamp on the lamp table was unbearable, I was like someone with a disease, I was dying and not dying, the thing that had brought me life was taking away my life, then one day I came to Arcadia. It was like returning to the peaceful land. My cabin is quiet and clean. How I love to walk along the winding trails, the woods and streams speak to me, how lovely the gorges that run like rivers through the land, I stand on the cliffs and look down. The peace and solitude embrace me like loving arms, they are only a sign of the greater peace to come, I have found the answer and I am so very grateful.

Amenities

Although our primary aim is to help you move forward with the successful implementation of your goal, we desire to make your stay here at Arcadia as pleasant and comfortable as we can. All rooms come with high-quality hardwood floors and hand-woven area rugs in a variety of distinctive patterns. Select hand-crafted antiques are spread tastefully among cozy contemporary furnishings. Kitchens are fully equipped with all cooking and eating utensils, including a generous selection of German-made precision-forged corrosion-resistant stainless-steel knives with exceptionally sharp edges. Each bedroom is provided with a hand-carved antique Rope Chest containing an assortment of fine-fibered all-natural hemp ropes in different lengths and thicknesses for your convenience. Enjoy the sturdy comfort of your all-weather fade-resistant quilted hammock hung between spruce or pine in the private woodland space behind your cottage or cabin. Not far from each hammock you will find a charming old-fashioned stone well with a depth of over 100 feet. Multicolored hand-painted glass lanterns hang from branches along the private paths and supply soft pools of illumination on the way to darker paths.

Swamps

For those who prefer a more unusual journey, our age-old swamps and marshes offer a dash of adventure. The depths of our swamps are variable and unpredictable. Although the water is generally shallow, the rotted-plant swamp-ground beneath the water may yield suddenly to the pressure of a footstep. Depths of twenty feet and more have been measured. Guides are available to point out the most treacherous places.

Testimonial #5

I want to say something about the gray feeling, not the grand suffering you see in old movies, but the gray feeling, the twilight dimness, always with me, even then. Back in grade school my mother would look at me and say, “What’s wrong, Joey?” and I would not know what to answer. “He’s shy,” people said, but it wasn’t that. In high school I had girlfriends, they liked my sad eyes, but I didn’t care about them enough, not the way they wanted me to. Later I tried vitamin supplements, antidepressants, a change of diet, but none of it cured the grayness. The grayness was quiet, but also not quiet, a sort of restless emptiness. Some women are attracted to the grayness, they think they can make it go away. I married a good woman. We went to Niagara Falls on our honeymoon, and when we came back we made a down payment on a house. My wife would look at me and say, “What’s wrong, Joe?” and I would try to tell her about the gray feeling, but a change would come over her face. It’s not you, I wanted to shout. It’s the gray feeling, nothing matters more than any other thing, something is missing in me, or maybe some extra piece has been added, the gray piece. One day she went away and never came back. I was alone in the empty house. Now I am married to my true wife, I thought, an empty house. One afternoon I passed a yard sale in the neighborhood. Old living room furniture, lamps with trailing cords. I thought, I am that yard sale. I began to see other signs. I was the faded matchbook lying in the roadside grass. I was the shadow of the stop sign stretching out at evening. I wondered whether the grayness was something I carried inside me, like a tumor, or whether it was something that clung to me, like a burr. One day I came to Arcadia. Here they know the grayness. They have seen it with their own eyes as I have seen it with mine. It is there at the edges of the gorges, it lies in the still centers of the lakes. A peace is flowing toward me. I have only to walk toward it and it will be mine.

Menu

Our menu is a mix of healthy traditional favorites, such as our classic free-range roast chicken served with roasted organic potatoes and steamed fresh vegetables, and a wide variety of unique local dishes. Vegetarian meals, including hearty vegetarian dinners that will please the palate of the most stalwart meat-lover, are available upon request. Our produce is grown on local farms and picked fresh each morning, and is supplemented by fragrant herbs from our own garden. An assortment of fine herbal teas, among them elderberry, wild orange blossom, and lemongrass, is available for your taste delight.

Getting Lost

Our many miles of scenic woodland trails are carefully marked to prevent our residents from getting lost, but we have also kept in mind the needs of those of you who want nothing better than to leave the familiar paths for other, more adventurous journeys. Such residents are encouraged to make use of the numerous byways that branch from the main trails into the thick depths of the forests, where it is not difficult to lose your way. The bypaths end abruptly, inviting pathless wandering through lush undergrowth among ancient conifers covered in moss. Mushrooms and wild berries grow in profusion and should be eaten with caution. Sometimes a sloping hillside reveals a deep opening overgrown with vegetation. For those who seek the pleasures and challenges of getting lost, we highly recommend the thickly wooded hills in the northeast section of forest, with their unexplored caves, their rushing streams and roaring waterfalls, their untamed scenes of natural wildness.

A Facilitator Welcomes You

Hi there. My name is Robert Darnell and I’m proud to be part of Arcadia’s team of Transition Facilitators. May I speak frankly? You are unhappy. You see no meaning in life. Your son has died, your husband has left you, your wife has run off with your best friend. You’re alone, you’re in pain, you hate yourself, nobody loves you, you’re fat, you’re ugly, you want to die. We understand. It’s our job to understand. We understand exactly who you are and exactly what you need. Here in Arcadia we will show you the way. The way is hard for some and easy for others, but it is the only way and you will know it when you see it. You have always known it. Come to us and we will guide you. The path is familiar. The path lies within you. Arcadia lies within you. You have always lived in Arcadia.

Encounters

Although we take every precaution to secure the absolute privacy of our residents, an encounter with another resident may sometimes occur. It might take place on one of the public forest trails, on a lake shore, or deep within a cavern. On such occasions, we advise you to nod silently once, avert your eyes, and continue on your way. Your undisturbed thought process is an essential component of your voyage to discovery and should be watched over with care. If any resident should attempt to strike up a conversation, smile politely but do not answer. Any such violation of the rules should be reported at once to your facilitator. Here at Arcadia, your best interests are our only concern.

Testimonial #6

I remember the first time. I was drinking a cup of coffee at the breakfast table, not thinking about anything in particular, when the thought came to me: Why? I remember my hand stopping in midair, the coffee cup suspended before me. The question began popping up at odd times during the day. I would step into the morning train, sit down at a window seat, open up my laptop, and suddenly think: Why? Or I’d stand watering the back lawn on a hot summer day, looking forward to the evening barbecue, Sherri-Ann, laughter with friends. Then the thought would come: Why? It was as if a little crack had opened up inside me. A dark wind was blowing through. What was wrong with me? Was I having a nervous breakdown? But I felt fine, except for the little voice that kept whispering: Why? When you hear that voice, you can go on, but nothing is the same. The sunlight striking the side of a house is not the same. The glass in the dish rack is not the same. I felt that something was happening to me but I did not know what it was. In the night the voice kept waking me: Why? You could say that my search for an answer is what led me to Arcadia. Within a few days, I was a new man. Here, everything you do has a purpose. When the Why comes, you have the answer: you are making yourself ready, you are preparing yourself. Out there, day follows day, Sunday Monday Tuesday, all without meaning. The numbers on the calendar change but they are always the same number. Here, a leaf falls and it is like the sound of the last page torn from the last calendar. A cup of coffee blares out like a trumpet. Soon it will be time.

Branches

The branches of our venerable trees are sturdy and proud. Many of our lower branches begin not far above the reach of your upstretched hands and thrust out powerfully in every direction, covering the paths and undergrowth with rich shade interwoven with sun. Above the lower branches, row upon row of higher branches form complex patterns of spacing and angulation, often intermingling with the branches of neighboring trees and preventing the observer from seeing branches closer to the top. Among acres of blue spruce and white pine, of Norway spruce and red pine, you will find stands of oak, beech, hickory, mountain ash, alder, and birch. Many of our lower branches are nearly horizontal and invite contemplation. Sit beneath them. Be still. Permit your thoughts to ascend toward those strong, restful places.

Transition Partnering

Although we have found solitary transition to be the most efficacious strategy for the vast majority of our residents, transition partnering is not unknown. Sometimes it happens: a nod to another resident glimpsed on the grounds of the Estate, a glance exchanged with a resident approaching along a woodland path. A possibility arises, at first only dimly, then more clearly and persistently. All partnering arrangements are enabled by your Transition Facilitator, who may advise for or against such a process. The successful completion of your end goal is contingent upon more than one factor, and we will take into consideration any outcome-based procedure that is likely to eventuate in a satisfactory resolution.

Testimonial #7

I guess you could call me one of those small-town girls. You know, family picnics down by the river, church on Sunday, cheering the football team, hot summer nights sitting outside the ice cream parlor on Main giggling with friends and flirting with boys. After high school I began waiting tables in the restaurant across from the movie theater. A few of my friends went off to college, it was like they couldn’t wait, most others stayed in town working in the plant and settling down. I was making pretty good money, saving up a little from year to year, going on dates, mostly boys I knew from high school, older now and looking to marry. But I was waiting for Mr. Right. I was renting a room in a house on a quiet street, dinner with Dad and Mom every Wednesday and Sunday, babysitting my twin nieces on the weekends. Time passes slowly in a small town. Mr. Right wasn’t happening and everyone I knew seemed to have kids. I began to hear something in my voice I had never heard before, a kind of forced cheerfulness. Summer nights in a town like mine can be tender and cruel — the sound of a distant train, porch lights glowing, couples laughing under the maples. I had a talk with my minister. He told me to be patient, good things would come to me. I was beginning to feel trapped and I didn’t know what to do. One day I met an older man. He had kind eyes, he wanted to marry me and give me a house with a backyard and a front porch, but just as things seemed to be working out I found out he was wanted by police on two counts of grand larceny. Sometimes I felt I couldn’t breathe. I wanted to scream, I wanted to smash something. I was the waitress with the nice smile, I was the auntie at the riverside picnics, the friendly lady at the church socials. I didn’t know what to do. I was tired all the time, I could see lines forming at the sides of my mouth. I felt I was waiting for something, not just a husband anymore, but something different, something better, another town, another life. I thought I should go away somewhere, live in a different place, but where could someone like me go. I wondered whether it was possible to spend a whole lifetime in the same town you were born in, waiting for something that doesn’t ever come. I had never taken a vacation. I’d saved up a little nest egg over the years and that is how I came to Arcadia. I can tell you it’s made all the difference. Everybody at the Main Office is as friendly as can be. My facilitator is very kind and understanding and talks openly with me about what I am feeling. He showed me there is no shame in it, in feeling that life has passed you by and there is no way out. You want to scream, you want to run away, but you get up and you go to work and nothing changes. He made me see I was still binding myself to the world by hope, the hope that things would get better somehow, even though I knew they would never get better, and once I was cured of the hope-disease I felt a peace come over me and I knew what I had to do.

The Tower

Residents are welcome to visit the old Observation Tower, located on the cliffs of the Northwest Gorge. This imposing structure, constructed over one hundred years ago of granite blocks mined from local quarries, rises to a height of 420 feet and contains a winding stone stairway of 659 steps. At the top is an external observation platform with a waist-high iron railing, badly damaged. The ledge beyond the railing extends a further twelve inches. The Tower has not been repaired for many years and should be entered with caution. On a bright day or moonlit night the old observation platform affords spectacular views of the Arcadian countryside in all its rich diversity. From the cliffside corner you can see down into one of our deepest gorges.

Goal-Oriented Discussion Groups

Although carefully protected privacy is a key component of our program, your facilitator may recommend attendance at one or more of our semiweekly goal-oriented discussion groups led by a Life Counselor in one of the Discussion Rooms located on the ground floor of the Estate. The purpose of group discussion is to increase motivation and focus by means of shared experience. Sometimes a resident who has spent days or weeks alone exploring the trails, lakes, gorges, caverns, and other features of our retreat will find that the group process can generate valuable insights. It may even lead to a moment of personal self-illumination that will prove to be a productive turning point on your developmental path. Participation in all group activities is voluntary. Refreshments will be served.

Testimonial #8

In what I suspect is not the middle of life’s journey I came to this bosky dell in search of what shall I say a setting for my soul’s plight, a decor for my desolation, hoping by such sleights to outwit destiny and calm the demons of the night, only to find myself enticed by ah! enchantments less triste: the seductive sinuosities of pineconed paths, the caress of caverns, an almost amorous beckoning of tranquil shores. And you, my best beloved, light of my life, lovely traitress and laughing fiend out of hell, who even now bends to whisper sweet somethings in my ear, I bid you a fond farewell, my darling demoness, my heart’s murderess, as I walk out into the Arcadian night that shines forth like a beacon in the blackness of my ravaged hopes.

Waiting

Sometimes it is best simply to wait. In time it will come to you. Row out into the middle of a silent lake, draw in your oars, and lean back against a cushion. Stand at the edge of a gorge with your hands behind your back and gaze down. Sit beneath the strong branches of a sheltering tree or lie back in your hammock beside the stone well. Pause for a while in the black passage of an underground cavern. Breathe quietly. Listen. The answer is there. It will come to you.

For More Information

For more information, or for additional copies of this brochure, please contact us online at arcadiaretreat.com. We are always here to serve you and to make your residency an unforgettable experience. Whether you come from Maine or Oregon, from small-town Ohio or the bustling streets of Manhattan, from Reykjavik or Mumbai, Arcadia awaits you. Although we exist on the map, in a particular and desirable location, we are really only a step away. Already you have seen us. You have caught glimpses of us in vacant lots, in city parks, in the spaces of blue sky in the stillness of summer afternoons. We are around that corner, across that road. In a very real sense, we are everywhere. Come to us. You will only be coming home.