As I grew under Tammy’s guidance, the call to go deeper became impossible to ignore. The questions and curiosity were getting louder. Tammy encouraged me to explore the offerings at One Spirit Learning Alliance. It was during a retreat at a monastery on Bear Mountain that I said yes to a life of service. At the top of that mountain at dawn, I opened up to the love and joy that comes from sacred relationship, and I understood that this decision was the beginning of my purpose unfolding for me to uncover and live.
Becoming an Interfaith Minister
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 be present in the same room. In 2019, I became an ordained Interfaith and Interspiritual Minister.
The Preparation Years
And then, life pulled me off script. Instead of diving straight into ministry, I drifted into a season of travel, new experiences, and distractions. Then the COVID pandemic hit, reshaping the world and reshaping me along with it. I became introverted, cautious, and more isolated than I had ever been. Not broken, but pulled inward in a way that forced deep reflection.
During that time a relationship ended that no longer aligned with where either of us was heading. And from that ending, a new path was born. A moment of clarity became the gentle nudge back toward myself and the path I had stepped away from.
Inspired by Peace Pilgrim, I call these my preparation years. Peace Pilgrim 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. If her gentle wisdom calls to you, her legacy is kept at the Friends of Peace Pilgrim.
Letting the Silver Stay
I began to embrace my aging and decided to let my gray hair stay. Not as a trend, but as a declaration of self acceptance. A release of who I thought I needed to be, and an embrace of the woman who had always been, who had patiently waited beneath all the layers. I began to loosen the grip of old limiting beliefs, reclaim my authenticity, and return to the spiritual foundation I had been building since childhood.
Gracewell Is My Ministry in Motion
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.
Making as a Spiritual Practice
Every piece I make begins with intention. Fabric, thread, paint, paper, all of it carries the same prayer that started this journey: that what I make holds something true for the person who receives it. If you want to see how that practice shapes the work itself, you can read about the Gracewell process.
Keep Going
If you would like to walk deeper, wander into the Believe Path, where the threads of faith, spirit, and seeking are gathered. If you missed it, Awakening Part 1 is where this story began.
If the school that shaped my ministry calls to you, you can visit One Spirit Learning Alliance.
Thank you for being here at the start of this next unfolding. Please leave a like, comment, or share, and subscribe to the blog so you never miss a new chapter.
Go gracefully. 🤍
