This is where I am right now. I am on a retreat. Retreat means surrender. And I surrender.

New York City’s winter requires an antidote. How about a warm nurturing room on the third floor of a mansion? Forty-five minutes from the city, the retreat center at Stony Point, New York is totally worth it.

The air smells fresh. The snow is still white. The food is good. I am here for 24 hours.

I am in a house full of women. Some are a part of a Loving Hands knitting and crocheting group. And I am part of a group of nine women from Rutgers Church. In the afternoon, we sat in a circle in the meditation room. In the evening, we sat in front of the fire and laughed.

I love to retreat. I would like to surrender every week. Or every month. Or at least every season. I see the need to get away as restorative and necessary, especially for working mothers. The cost for 3 meals and a single room in the mansion is $115, but the result is sanity. It is not too high a price to pay.

http://www.stonypointcenter.org/

I find I can can thrive on the island of Manhattan so long as every once in a while I can go to Stony Point or Westport, New York or to Manchester, Vermont. Getting away makes going home manageable.