Rachel
“I’ve attended Winter Solace every year, and it is so refreshing. Like, I’m not a ‘ladies retreat’ person. This is NOT that. For one thing, it’s for all, not just ladies. Highly recommend.”
Jodi
“1 billion stars and growing 😊. The Pilgrimage’s Stepping Into the Story exists to help us recognize ourselves and helps us to tell our story in a world of confusion (even within the religious contexts). Joining with others in considering your path so far can ground you for taking the next steps forward more hopefully and with understanding of your place in the world. If nothing else, you will walk away knowing you are not alone in what you have experienced and yearned for.”
Michelle
“SITS [Stepping into the Story] helped me in ways I didn’t even anticipate. I don’t normally share much, but this was so clearly a safe space that I was able to share comfortably. It helped me put a lot of things in perspective. And it’s not done in a pushy way. There is no rhetoric. It’s just a small group of people walking alongside each other as we navigate our stories and how they’ve brought us to where we are.”
Mike
“You truly have saved my life. Not just my faith.”
Better Than a Map
There’s a world where literally everything is explained and clear and mapped out six ways ’til Sunday and exposited and commentaried and devotionalized and studied…and clean, and neat, and packaged. It’s not a beaten path, it’s a well-lit, well-paved road with signs and directions anywhere you want to go. It’s comfortable, and feels like home.
But if you’ve lived in that world, and been formed by it for 20, 30, 50 years, maybe something unexpectedly shifts and you suddenly realize in that deep, visceral kind of way that has no time for reasons or discussion or explanation that something is Very Wrong, and even if you don’t know what it is yet, you know that you Cannot stay where you are anymore.
You blink, and instead of a well-paved road you’re suddenly standing in a swamp. You have no idea where you are or where you’re going, you didn’t have any time to pack or prepare, you can barely see anything through the mist, you haven’t even realized everything you just lost, much less had a chance to come to terms with it all, and where you came from no longer looks anything like you remember.
And there’s no map. No signs, no directions, no explanations…nothing.
Then you see a lantern, and Jenn appears. She says “Hey, I found a few other folks who got stuck out here. We’re gonna travel together for a little bit so I can help them figure out where they’re headed. If you want to come along we’d be glad to have you!”
The Pilgrimage doesn’t give you a tidy explanation, or answers to all the questions and arguments you’ve been carrying in your head. It doesn’t put you back on the paved road or give you signs showing you where to go and how to get there. And it doesn’t give you a map.
Instead, Jenn does something far more valuable: She helps you start to learn how to navigate your way through without one.
