At the GilChrist Retreat Center, we encourage our guests, who cannot be present on our land, to “retreat in place.” In doing so, they find centeredness and peace in their surroundings. We dialogue with an already strong network of retreat centers in North America, giving and receiving support. We watch the land take a Sabbath of its own.
We constantly reflect on the need for safety and emotional support as well as the need for personal renewal to support social change, we feel a pulling in a new direction that can shape our re-opening. For some time, we took a break from the busyness of short-term retreats to specialize in supporting solo retreats of seven nights or longer. These we are calling Deep Rest Retreats. Our reservations are filling up amazingly fast, and we are now welcoming retreatants on-site. It seems that guests had been thirsting for this very thing. Some guests have wondered, though, “Why the shift to longer retreats?”
On a very practical level, the cleaning regimen that feels safest for our staff and guests right now involves at least one week of downtime for each cabin between guests, creating a grounding rhythm of one week on, one week off.
But apart from the practical reasons, a longer retreat is a chance to slow down and deepen. This comes during a moment that feels very frantic and fragmented. We acknowledge that a long solo retreat has its own opportunities and challenges. GilChrist caretaker John Howie made a list of considerations for a longer retreat to help our guests in this experiment.
“People often come into retreat with lofty goals in mind,” he says. “What we don’t know when we go on retreat is what the retreat has in store for us.”
Longer retreats serve our human community. They also uphold the Sabbath: a rest for the land we tend at GilChrist. Over the past few months, this rest has noticeably changed the behavior of the animals who call this place home.
We do lament that this decision results in fewer guests being able to experience retreat at GilChrist. Due to limited cabins in use and extended cleaning times, we have already reached capacity, and we’re also aware that spending seven nights away from home, work, and personal responsibilities is not possible for everyone. Guests have said that even a short time at GilChrist is deeply valued and restorative. We are so grateful for that. We have been and will continue to evaluate the timeline for a return to shorter retreats. In the meantime, we are tracking other centers in our region that are currently accepting reservations for shorter retreats.
We also continue to discuss GilChrist as a space offered to help guests breathe—a space to slow down, catch one’s breath, and breathe into the present. In meditation, breath is the centering focus. And, we know, that breath carries much significance at this moment in history.
We hope that Deep Rest Retreats will serve as a breath that sustains our guests for good work, inspiring deep transformation in every corner of our beautifully broken world.
Deborah Haak Frost, caretaker for community engagement, and Kirstin Vander Giessen-Reitsma, head caretaker, both work at the Institute’s public retreat center, GilChrist.