It appears to be Spring and that means Vivekananda Retreat will be open starting March 2. There may still be snow, but so far, we have had a basically snowless winter. If you wish to visit Ridgely for a day/tour, please call to make arrangements at least 2 days in advance. It is not possible to take your own tour. We live in the houses where you will be visiting and so it is necessary to you to be accompanied by one of us. The tours we give usually last about 2 hours. There is much to see and many stories connected with this place associated with Swami Vivekananda! You can also schedule an overnight stay. Call or email us to schedule overnight stays at least 5 days in advance. Please note: we do not allow children under the age of 17 to stay overnight at the retreat. Also, we are still requiring all overnight guests to take a home Covid test before arriving. This is to protect the resident staff and other guests.
Ridgely is meant to be a place of retreat and reflection. For that reason, we deliberately do not have many daily activities. Each guest is free to structure their retreat as they see fit. Meals are prepared by the guests in the communal kitchen of each retreat house. Caretakers are there to assist if they are free.
We have morning and evening group meditations from 6-7am and 6-7pm. The shrine room is open all day from 6am-7pm. Anyone may use the shrine to meditate during those hours. We have quite a few local people who drop in to meditate whenever they are free.
Weekly events:
Ridgely sponsors 2 zoom classes each week
Wednesdays at 5:30pm. Gitaprana’s Shakta Advaita class
Sundays at 5:30pm Ask the Sisters sessions. The sisters from Calif. and Ridgely answer questions asked via email from the class attendees. The sisters do not know what the questions are in advance so these sessions are very spontaneous.
To receive the Zoom links for these classes please email Gitaprana. gitaprana@ridgely.org
We also have a class here at the retreat on Sundays at 10:30am. Currently we are studying the Bhagavad Gita in depth.
From about April to November we try to schedule 1 organized weekend retreat featuring a guests speaker-usually one of the swamis or sisters from the Vedanta Societies around the US. We are currently working on that schedule.
Ridgely has 82 acres of forest and field. Anyone may walk on our property, along our shrine trail, during daylight hours. You don’t need to tell us that you are coming to walk. You do need to be aware that we live in an area where ticks causing Lyme Disease are present, so dress appropriately.
Volunteering at Ridgely
Spring means we are beginning our outside property maintenance. There is always much to be done. We have many long flower and shrub borders that require weeding. We have a big organic vegetable garden that needs to be maintained. This year we need to do some work on our shrine trail, fixing drainage and cutting back invasive vines.
We also have many small painting projects both inside and outside of all 3 houses.
We would love some help. If you would like to volunteer, please email or call us. Last year we designated Saturdays as work days, but it rained practically every Saturday. This year we may set 2 days per month beginning in April for group work days.