Rediscover the Sacred.
There are stories many of us have quietly (or loudly) inherited about what is sacred. For me, Kimee, growing up in a fundamental evangelical narrative, the sacred often seemed elusive. Perhaps it was in carefully ordered spaces, like a Wednesday night prayer meeting, an orchestrated worship service, or my morning quiet time. If even those could be called sacred, tainted as they were by my human condition.
The sacred was always ‘over there’. Something I must give effort to enter into — like a glorious European cathedral, have the right doctrine around and protect. It felt exclusive, fragile and apart from me. It was not within my own daily lived experience; and certainly not within the parts of me that felt a little messy, chaotic, ‘wildernessy’ and wild. Along the way, I began to believe that wildness and sacredness cannot coexist.
Scripture tells a different story…
Again and again, God meets people in wild places — Deserts and storms. Mountaintops and open water. Gardens and wilderness. Wells and campfires. On dusty roads and unfamiliar paths. Even in the wild living of daily ordinary life.
The Spirit arrives not as something controlled, curated or contained, but like wind, breath, cloud and fire — alive, moving, untethered. Or water, wine, and dove — springing up within, infusing, and descending upon.
Perhaps the wild was never meant to be feared or resisted; and sanctuary was never meant to be scarce.
The Heart Behind This Year’s Wild Sanctuary 2-Night Retreat…
This retreat was born from a longing to gently reexamine the spiritual assumptions many of us carry, especially the ones we may not even realize are shaping us. The assumptions that tell us God is mostly found in control and order — ‘over there’. That rest in Christ must be earned. That safety only exists inside carefully managed spaces and lives. That our bodies, emotions, questions, or longings somehow make us less spiritual instead of more human.
Over these two nights together, we want to create space not merely to learn something new, but to unlearn what may be keeping us disconnected from the sacredness of life itself, whether in the wilderness or our own ordinary backyard.
There is something profoundly healing about naming the narratives we’ve inherited. And there is freedom in letting them go or expand. Not simply talking about the sacred differently, but experiencing it differently.
This is where nature, embodiment, movement, contemplative prayer & practice, Scripture, rest and shared presence will begin to do their quiet reframing work.
An Invitation to rest, reimagine and rediscover the sacred in the wild…
This weekend will be a reminder that wild is not where God disappears; it is often where God becomes unmistakable. And sanctuary is not a rare place to search for or occasionally visit; but as something mobile and always accessible. Something that can be encountered in breath prayer while washing dishes, in tears in the unhinged moments and always within our own beloved bodies. When the Jewish Leaders pressed Jesus on where to find the Kingdom of God, he responded by saying it is within and in your midst. (Luke 17:21)
God has never been confined to quiet rooms, controlled spaces and amongst those who are getting it ‘just right’. The Spirit moves through wind, fire, breath, cloud, water, wine and dove. And Jesus always shows us the way.
Retreat With Us…
Our second signature overnight retreat is going to be SO SPECIAL. And sacred…but not because it’s set apart, curated and intentionally created for time in God’s Loving Presence. It will be sacred because a group of wildish women will be there bringing their whole selves, their stories, their questions, their laughter, their longing — and together we will remember that God has been present in the wildness all along.
