What is it that keeps massage therapists and psychologists in business, church doors open, and the latest fad diets and fitness regimes a billion dollar business? It may be our quest to feel good, be good and look good. More precisely, knowingly or unknowingly, it’s our quest to feel good inside and out—our path to wholeness.

Perhaps it is this path that led intentional community visionary Kerry Lindsey, healer Cynthia Wisehart and innkeeper Taska Calloway to create The Lake House Lodge & Spa. Located just down from the Highland Lake Inn, the Lodge and Spa is the most recent addition to Lindsey’s long-held concept and plan for the evolution of the property. The lodge is a rustic-style, yet plush building set on the edge of Highland Lake, with water seen from every vantage point, guest room and treatment room. It is scheduled to open in early 2007. Lindsey and Wisehart believe people will find something more at The Lake House than a feel-good massage or facial.

“The Lake House Lodge & Spa intends to address the whole person,” Wisehart explains. “It’s a healing arts spa for not just the physical, but also for mental, emotional and spiritual aspects of our being.” This four-directions of the human being concept is the very core of the spa’s mission.

“We want people to take that feeling that you have after a massage or that centered place after a retreat and incorporate that into their daily lives and everyday experience,” says Wisehart. In that vein, Lindsey and Wisehart hope to enhance the opportunity for long life and healthful living. The Lake House Spa will offer an array of traditional pampering and rejuvenation spa services, as well as yoga, movement and meditation classes. But it may be their “healthy arts packages” which will set them apart from other spas. They will offer assessments, including bio-energetic screenings, and subsequent protocols for wellness to help people be their best and live their fullest life. Whether guests need more attention on body therapies, meditation and spiritual work, or a greater focus on nutrition or naturopathy, the Lake House Spa is prepared to get its guests back to a place of vibrant living.

“As the world moves faster and faster and we have the means to stay more and more connected, we seem to be becoming less and less connected from the elements of our human experience that keep us truly connected to ourselves and our souls. Without that connection, we lose ourselves, we lose touch,” says Wisehart. “We want to reawaken and give guests the tools to maintain that connection and therefore continue the process of maintaining health.”

“And it all comes back to this,” Lindsey says as he smiles and gestures toward the lake. “The key is immersing people in nature. Give them this and they’re going to tune in to the woods, the trees, everything, and then it’s fun to just watch people be, or watch people realize it’s okay to just be.”

Wisehart tells a story about one of her clients who recently came to the spa. “When he arrived, he just kept fidgeting, trying to get closer to the lake, looking at the water and being distracted by it.” Wisehart knew immediately to incorporate this into their work that day. She told him, “Let’s go down to the waterfall and talk there for a little while.” They did, and she said you could just see the shift in the person—in his humanness.

Lindsey and Wisehart see the lake and the surrounding woods as part of the therapeutic experience. Guests will be able to swim in a naturally filtered pool, carved into the edge of the lake. They can explore the lake by kayak or canoe or simply enjoy the lake from a floating hot tub actually submerged at the edge of the lake. Hikers can explore wooded trails amongst the 200 acres, including the Long Life Trail.
The Long Life Trail is symbolic of Lindsey’s vision. The trail leads through different aspects of the Highland Lake community. Visitors will enjoy the woods and the lake along the trail and see the garden patches, pastures and pens of livestock, and they’ll be able to meander past the Retreat Center and through the herbal labyrinth. (The Retreat Center is another new component of the Highland Lake community.) “When people see where their food is coming from, when people see sustainability, things shift.”

Lindsey is a like a kid at Christmas as he tours the Lodge, the grounds and shows guests the fruits of a life-long dream. It’s important to see all of this in order to see the depth of his creation. Touring the gardens, he says, “When we were kids, we lived about three miles down the road. We were poor, but every time my mother put food on the table for guests and family, she’d say, ‘It was picked fresh today.’ There’s a richness in that.” His mother lives on the property now and still picks her salad fresh every day.

It seems a lot of synergistic ideas come together in this corner of Highland Lake. Just past the new Retreat Center, pilings have been installed at the water’s edge to build yoga and exercise platform. Crews are also preparing a small jetty of land for a natural cathedral. So much thought, care and vision has gone into the process that one cannot help but realize the oneness and connectedness of the grounds and community. One also cannot help but be impressed by Lindsey’s dedication to living an “awake life” and the patience it’s taken to see his dream through.

Whether you just need a little pampering or a complete realignment in life, Lake House Lodge and Spa offers just the prescription—vibrant living!

Michelle Keenan is a freelance writer living in Asheville. Reach her at michellekeenan@yahoo.com.

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