The Mountains Are Calling

Last September, I took myself on retreat. The pandemic wreaked havoc on all our lives and, like many other mothers, I was overwhelmed, overtired, overworked, and missing the space that allowed me to feel like my own person. This solo retreat was an opportunity to reconnect with myself and to show up in the world without the weight of Mother and mothering on my shoulders.

Going away, even for a few days, was full of the ever-present mom guilt. Let’s add all the fears of traveling during a pandemic and it was a fun cocktail of emotions. I was excited for time away to be on my own, nervous about how my family would do over the few days I was gone, and worried that I would get sick and bring sickness home.

I needed the time alone though. I needed the space to breathe some life back into me; to replace fear (thanks pandemic) with the joy of experiencing something new.

I landed in Tennessee on a Thursday and left on a Sunday. During my time there, I stayed at Seven Springs Retreat Center, ran the Great Smoky Mountains Half Marathon, hiked a trail in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and explored the cities of Knoxville and Maryville/Townsend.

All by myself and it was glorious.

I had come across Seven Springs while searching for retreat locations a couple of years ago. The plan had been to host a retreat there with a dear friend, but the pandemic kept putting that plan on hold. I decided to go to Seven Springs on my own so that I could experience the space for myself because I knew that in order for me to ask others to experience something with me, I needed to embody the experience first. To live it is to know it, right?

And so, my solo retreat became an exploration of the retreat I wanted to host for others: What was life like at Seven Springs? How far is everything? What is doable in the area? Should I have packed anything else? How does running a half marathon fit into the weekend? How much time is there for everything? What could make my time here better? How much yoga can be done?

While I was doing all this asking something incredible happened and the “retreat” I had been thinking of and planning transformed into something else and something more. This wasn’t just a “retreat” to take a “break from life;” it was an enhancement of life through the creation of space to be in community with the self, with others, and with the land. I went from wanting to retreat from the stressors of my life to feeling reconnected to the absolute miracle that is the experience of being me. There I was, stressed out and full of mom guilt, surrounded by mountains that experience me as a blip in the timeline of their lives. It was a strange mixture of feeling small and grand and a part of something larger all at the same time.

Then there was the running. Insert sigh. I ran along a river, past homes that looked like they were a hundred years old, and toward the mountains. It was a hard race because it was a steady climb (dang sea level legs!), but there’s nothing quite like running in a place that feels so much wiser than anything my human experience could comprehend. Let’s just say that the mountains called, and I answered by running through them with both admiration and awe. Also, Vacation Races is an incredible organization that respects the lands of the National Parks.

The seeds for Cor∙rer Retreats and this blog where planted while I was in Tennessee; this is why I am so eager to return in September 2022. From the seeds of dreams and plans to the blooms of an experience full of people from different walks of life who come together for a weekend of soul-diving in the mountains and on the run.

September will be a return home to one’s heart. The hope is that together we will run wild into the mountains and flow freely back into our true selves.

I hope you will join me.

For more information on The Great Smoky Mountains Running Experience, go here.

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