From my youngest memories I can remember loving being in nature. There was a time when I was a teenager and my mom and sister wanted to go and have a spa day at a renowned California spa with mineral and mud baths and swimming pools and all I wanted to do was go whale watching in the ocean. Just give me creation to explore and be around and I was happy!
Nature fuels and revives my heart.
When I can bear witness to something grander, greater and more complex than things we create with our own human hands it makes me feel a sense of awe and wonder at the beauty and mastery of God’s creation. I love both science and art and so nature is the perfect way to pique my curiosity and fuel my tank!
Last year my friend had told me about a group of women called Wholehearted and Courageous and how they have retreats and multi-generational and multi-ethnicitic women fly in from all over America to attend them and grow in community and sisterhood together. I hoped to have gone, but it wasn’t a good time for me to.
Covid hit a month before it was supposed to happen and they rescheduled it for a year later, this spring in Corbett, Oregon at the Crestview Retreat Manor. I was pumped and signed up right away!
I met my friend, Melisa, in Portland a day early and we decided to explore Multnomah Falls and the Columbia River Gorge right when she picked me up from the airport.
I hadn’t been to Multnomah since my early twenties and my body remembered just how hard it was to hike up those 11 switchbacks to see the top of the waterfall. I only made it to 4/11 before turning back.
We drove down and found a boat loading area to hike around and talked until after nautical twilight while watching the tug boats cause low wakes and hundreds of frogs plopping into the water. It was magical.
The next morning we woke up at 5:45 AM and drove to Cannon Beach, Oregon on the coast and walked around in the fog and looked at Haystack Rock and ate the most delicious Clam Chowder and Crab Cakes at Wayfarers restaurant.
We picked up shells, sat on driftwood stumps and just soaked in the sights, smells and sounds of the ocean and then walked around a souvenir shop.
We couldn’t have been that close to a state park and not explored their rainforest looking trails and so we drove three miles north to Ecola State Park and hiked to see one last incredible view before driving back and going to the Wholehearted and Courageous retreat in Corbett.
The retreat was everything I hope it would be.
I met incredibly powerful women who are walking in confidence and purpose in their lives, listened to beautiful ideas about our identity in Jesus from the Author of The Shack, William Paul Young, ate amazing food prepared by a celebrity chef and made friendships from all over the country.
I’m excited to see what this next season has for me and how I can live fully aligned with my God given talents and purposes. I’ll take you all on that journey with me on here!!
