Twice a year I hold a retreat for women entrepreneurs and creators in Loretto Kentucky.
It’s held at a convent of all places. Well… the retreat center attached to the convent.
And attached to that is nearly 800 acres of hiking trails, old forests, a regenerative farm, and pollinator conservation fields. It’s a special place where I go to get lost.
We just returned from our April retreat at Loretto, and I’m still riding the wave of something I can’t quite name.
Magic, maybe.
Or just the particular alchemy that happens when you gather a group of women who show up as their full selves. With all their gifts, their stories, their laughter, and their willingness to be present.
What struck me most this year wasn’t just the retreat itself (though it was extraordinary).
It was the women.
Each one brought something irreplaceable to our circle. A unique intelligence, a particular flavor of joy, or a perspective that only she could offer.
There’s something about women gathering with intention that creates its own kind of electricity.
We weren’t there to perform or prove anything. We were just there to be.
And then there’s the land itself.
The Sisters of Loretto have been holding space on that 788 acres for over two hundred years.
I arrived this year thinking about containers.
What makes a place able to hold so much?
Because Loretto holds everything.
It holds our exhaustion and our joy.
It holds our unfinished dreams and our secret longings.
It holds the weight of all the lives we carry as women. The people we care for, the responsibilities we bear, the parts of ourselves we’ve had to set aside to take care of everyone else.
And somehow, miraculously, it transforms that weight into lightness.
We arrive heavy with living.
We leave lighter, somehow.
We set things down there.
We leave them there.
We walk away renewed.
This year, we created small altars in our rooms – gathering precious stones, meaningful tokens, and small beautiful things that whispered to us about who we are when no one needs us to be anyone else.
We journaled by candlelight and asked ourselves the questions that matter:
What do I want for my life?
Who am I becoming?
What needs to rest, and what wants to rise?
Melanie Warren taught us all to knit. 🙂
Like peaceful little biddies we each knit a small square, our needles clicking together in the evening light.
Those squares are being woven into an Afghan by Melanie’s talented hands. It will be donated to the Sisters, so that generations of women (ourselves included) will be wrapped in something we made together with our own hands and our own presence.
Some of our group took a tour of the Maker’s Mark Distillery (
because sometimes community building happens over bourbon. I’m SO here for it).
Others walked the labyrinth.
One woman got locked out of her room when the wind slammed the door shut, and watching this group of brilliant, resourceful women problem-solve that particular crisis was a masterclass in ingenuity and grace.
This is who these women are.
This is what we’re building together.
I’m already counting down the days until our June group arrives.
There’s something about knowing that more women will get to experience this. That more people will discover what it feels like to put themselves first, to be witnessed by other women, to set down what’s heavy and pick up what matters.
Thank you for being part of our community.
If you’re reading this and feeling that quiet tug…
That sense that maybe you need this. I hear you.
We do have a waiting list for next year.
We always save spots for our returning sisters first, but if you’d like to get on the list for when new spots open up, you can join that wait list here.
In the meantime, if you want to know more about what Loretto is really like, I’ve included details below.
With deep gratitude and a heart still full,
Rachel
If you’ve been thinking about joining us and wondering whether it’s really for you… Just know that whatever you need right now in your life, Loretto can hold it. And so can we.
These spots are coveted. Women come once and they come back. Year after year.
Because once you experience what it feels like to be held by a community of women who see you, who celebrate you, who show up as their full selves without apology… you understand why we guard these circles so carefully. Why we keep them small and choose intentionally.
This year, our April retreat is complete. Our June retreat is sold out. But we are building a waiting list for next year, and if you’re interested in securing one of the limited spots that will open up, I want you to have first dibs.
Here’s how it works: we always offer returning sisters their spots first.
They get the pick of the rooms, the choice of weeks. But for those who are new to Loretto, we do open spots as they become available. And those spots go to people on our waiting list, in the order they signed up.
If you want to be on that list, if you want to be one of the first to know when a spot opens, do that here.
Then hit reply and tell us a little about yourself, what’s calling you to Loretto, what you’re hoping to find or leave behind.
You belong in this circle. And we’d love to welcome you home.