I’m a product of the Sandwich Generation, caught between raising young children and caring for aging parents at the same time. I left it late for the biological clock to kick in. I wanted to have it all—a fulfilling, independent life, travelling and living overseas and developing my career before ‘settling down’ to marry and have babies in my late thirties.
By my early forties, I found myself with a toddler and a preschooler, as well as caring for a terminally ill mother. I soldiered on, but after my mother’s passing and with both my girls finally in school, I fell into a hole of physical and emotional exhaustion.
Perhaps recognizing that I’d lost my ‘mojo,’ and with a big-zero birthday coming up, my partner offered me a two-week family leave pass. After years of changing nappies, wiping noses and ferrying my disabled mother to medical appointments and hospital visits, I suddenly had 14 days all to myself to go and do whatever I liked.
Since becoming a Mum, a regular fantasy on long, challenging days was to revisit New York City. I wanted to get as far from domestic drudgery as possible, drop in on old friends and haunt my favourite art museums. I also wanted to reclaim part of my old self—the free-spirited woman I was before children came along.
Heading for New York
With flights booked, how did I end up, two months later, chanting barefoot at an old summer camp in the middle of the Hudson Valley? My plans grew awry as the days drew closer to my flight. Alongside my excitement about returning to the Big Apple was an accompanying feeling of overwhelm. I soon realized that the break I needed was as much mental as it was physical.
I recalled the name of a retreat centre in the U.S. that I had heard about through friends in my meditation group. ‘Disconnect to Reconnect’ announced the website for the Omega Institute, and I was sold.
Only two hours by train from New York City, Omega is like the mother ship of retreat centres. It was listed in the book 1,000 Places to See in the USA and Canada Before You Die. It even rated a mention in the Donna Tartt novel I happened to be reading. I took this as a sign and booked my train ticket before leaving.
After a few days in the city that never sleeps, happily sated on a blitz of museums and galleries, and still slightly dizzy from jet lag, I tentatively negotiated the bedlam of Penn Station and boarded my train bound for Rhinebeck in New York state.
Rhinebeck turned out to be a charming and genteel town that dates back to early Dutch settlement in the late 1600s. As you drive through the town centre, the elegant historic buildings soon give way to emerald rolling hills. The Omega Institute is located on a 250-hectare property by a serene lake, and is set among manicured gardens. As I arrived in the springtime, the place dripped with a verdant tranquillity, and I found myself letting out a long sigh.
People come to the Institute from all walks of life and all parts of the globe, to undertake workshops in health, healing, creativity, spiritual growth and sustainable living. Founded in 1977, as a non-profit wholistic retreat and education centre, Omega is now celebrating its 40th anniversary.
Meditation and peace
Accommodation runs from quaint timber cottages to dorms and tent cabins. Settling into my single cabin, I happily turned off my mobile phone and left it in my room, where it remained untouched for the next week.
Throughout the centre grounds, there are picturesque groves with benches to sit and contemplate, stone Buddhas, a circular meditation labyrinth and the peaceful Yearning Pond, with water trickling down from the Centre’s meditation sanctuary.
I had booked myself into one of Omega’s ‘R & R’ retreats—a flexible program of meditation and wellness classes. I soon discovered that you can do as little or as much as you like at the Centre. In between the 7 a.m. and 5.30 p.m. daily meditation sittings, you can participate in Yoga, Tai Chi and movement classes, as well as art workshops.
You can also pamper yourself with a sauna, a massage and Reiki treatments, or engage in some of the slightly more ‘out there’ alternative therapies such as Tibetan sound healing and Hindu chanting.
For nature lovers, there is bushwalking and kayaking on the lake, or you can borrow a book and lie on a hammock by the water to watch some of the local wildlife wander by, including groundhogs and freshwater turtles.
The Centre’s hearth is the dining hall, with a restaurant offering a delicious smorgasbord of organic farm-to–table produce, and not just your regulation tofu, rice and beans. The dining hall is also the central meeting place for conversation. Over hearty soups and salads, I met men and women from all over the country who were looking for some time out and an opportunity to nurture themselves.
I befriended a Boston woman called Jo, a dedicated teacher of kids with learning disabilities, who was savouring some much-needed time for herself. Together, we attended gentle Yoga lessons and raucous dance sessions that left us physically spent but loose and relaxed.
Weekends are usually reserved for specific workshops. The cornucopia of workshops on offer are mind-blowing and totally ecumenical in nature. They range from ecstatic chanting and Shamanic Reiki to intuitive healing, Zen painting and Afro-Cuban movement retreats.
I have booked ahead for a silent weekend retreat with the renowned Buddhist teacher and nun Pema Chodron. Her earthy wit and practical teachings are a godsend, and I feel grateful to have encountered such a profoundly wise and peaceful woman.
Letting go
I tried to let go of any feelings of maternal guilt about taking a holiday for myself. I wanted my two girls to understand that whatever stage we’re at in our busy adult lives, it’s vital to carve out time for ourselves whenever we possibly can. Even if it’s only a weekend, a day or even an afternoon, self-care (especially for women) is crucial to our emotional, spiritual and physical well-being.
On Sunday, as the retreatants began to pack up and leave Omega, it was also time for me to catch my train back to New York and then onwards back home. Yet, as I alighted the train with a new spring in my step, I felt ready for the long journey ahead—rested, replenished and ready to embrace family life with renewed energy, humour and enthusiasm.
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