Steven Millhauser - Voices in the Night - Stories

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