The Why behind attending the Women’s Retreat
Greetings Ladies of LaSalle. I am appealing to you, asking you to consider attending this year’s Women’s retreat on the weekend of September 26-28, 2025.
For some, you might be a regular attendee of the annual retreat; for others, this might be your first time. For many it might take more work to plan to get away than it is to participate on the weekend itself. No doubt it is a commitment to set aside time and resources and decide to attend to, and care for yourself.
It was on a retreat years ago, where I had an encounter that changed everything for me. On this retreat, I was prompted to share a part of my story that I hadn’t shared before. It was in the telling and sharing of my hurt, pain, and confusion that I found liberation, and not just for me, but for others in the room. This retreat experience help set the stage for what would become my life’s work – to curate spaces and atmospheres of authenticity by which participants can be set free of fear and anxiety and adopt best practices of operating from a place of peace.
The research in my doctoral thesis was titled “The Role of Storytelling as a Pathway to Healing in Retreat Settings.” My hypothesis suggested that as we tell our stories and locate and connect it with the biblical story, a healthier story can emerge and create healing for the storyteller and the hearer.
A quote from one of my sources and favorite books Mighty Stories, Dangerous Rituals, suggest that story has the ability to “carry us to remote places where we never intended to go.”
“Human experience is structured around time and narrative…Story fosters a sense of movement and process in individual and communal life…Stories we tell, whether human or divine, mythic or parabolic, order experience, construct meaning, and build community…There is power in stories that enable us to make deep human connections that transcend unfamiliarity in locale and experience the narrative form of human existence…Stories hold us together and keep us apart; we tell stories in order to live…Stories are not simply heard or read or told; they are created. Stories allow us to construct meaning and communicate ourselves to another…Stories help us organize and make sense of the experiences of our lives…Stories reveal or conceal ourselves; and that we construct stories to integrate the disparate elements of our lives; that we are our stories…Storytelling is a framework for human necessity…We tell stories in order to live.”
Ladies, we need your stories. We need your presence. We need your help to build community. I pray that you consider investing time in yourself and in others. There will be time to share, rest, reflect, laugh, walk, talk, meditate, eat, drink, and most of all, time to be refreshed and restored.
Come and share your story; listen to the stories of others; and let’s build a healthier story for all of us individually and collectively.
I hope to see you all on the retreat. You can register at this link. If you have any concerns or questions, please reach out to me by email.
Peace to you all!
Julie