Awakening: Part 2 The Making of My Ministry

As I grew under Tammy’s guidance, the call to go deeper became impossible to ignore. The questions, the curiosity, the quiet invitations from within, they were all getting louder.

I spent two years as a seminarian at One Spirit Learning Alliance, studying teachings, rituals, and spiritual practices from many of the world’s major traditions. I learned alongside others who were seeking their own truths, people who understood the wonder and complexity of wanting an authentic relationship with the Divine. During those years, I felt my lifelong love of science and my spiritual instincts begin to braid together. As I embraced energy work, intuition, and interfaith teachings, all parts of me finally had permission to sit at the same table. In 2019, I became an ordained Interfaith\Interspiritual Minister.

And then, life did what life does, it pulled me off script. Instead of diving straight into ministry, I drifted into a season of travel, new experiences, and distractions. Then COVID hit, reshaping the world and reshaping me with it. I became more introverted, more cautious, and more isolated than I had ever been. Not broken but pulled inward in a way that forced deep reflection.

A relationship ended during that time that no longer aligned with where either of us were heading. A moment of clarity became the gentle nudge back toward myself and the path I had stepped away from. Those were my preparation years. Inspired by Peace Pilgrim, who devoted herself to inner work before stepping fully into her calling. Her story gave me permission to treat my own inward season with tenderness instead of judgment.

My gray hair grew in then, not as a trend, but as a quiet declaration of self-acceptance. A release of who I thought I needed to be, and an embrace of the woman who had been waiting beneath all the layers. During this time, I loosened the grip of old limiting beliefs, reclaimed my authenticity, and returned to the spiritual foundation I had been building since childhood.

And all of it, the faith I was born with, the religion I stepped away from, the messy years, the knees-on-the-floor prayers, Tammy’s presence, seminary, healing, creativity-as-spirit, has led me here. To The Gracewell Studio. To you. To this offering of safe space.

Gracewell is my ministry in motion. A place where creativity, spirituality, healing, and humanity meet. A place where you can explore your own wonderings, just as I explored mine. Where making becomes meaning. Where beauty becomes medicine. Where the Divine is allowed to show up however you need it to.

There are so many more stories to share. But for now, thank you for being here at the start of this next unfolding. If you’d like to walk deeper with me, feel free to like, comment, or share this post and subscribe to the blog so you never miss a new chapter of the unfolding. You’re always welcome to explore the other Gracewell reflections, each one a small doorway into the heart of this work.

If you’d like to learn more about the school that shaped my ministry, you can visit One Spirit Learning Alliance at www.onespiritinterfaith.org. And if Peace Pilgrim’s gentle wisdom speaks to you, the Friends of Peace Pilgrim share her story and legacy at www.peacepilgrim.org.