Discoveries in the Wilderness
December 2, 2025
As we at Wilderness Well look back on 2025, we realize that something has been shifting and transforming in us. We are grateful, not only to the Spirit for guiding us, but to the brave souls who join us, helping us explore what a "wilderness community" might be. I know I will never be the same after this year, and our hope and passion for this kind of spiritual community continues to expand.
So, what are we discovering as our Wilderness Well communities unfold?
Practically, we are learning to:
- Decrease the knowledge of one voice (particularly mine!) to discover how the Spirit moves in conversations.
- Increase space and quiet to hear one's own deeper voice and the whispers of the Divine.
- Speak from our own deeper, vulnerable voices, sharing internal wrestlings, struggles and discoveries.
- Practice genuinely hearing one another, seeking the other person’s perspective, while quieting our own impulses to fix, debate or advise.
- Create a “no performance zone," where we relax into our true selves and receive insights as invitations not commands.
- Embrace creation around us, looking for life among the animals, trees and land, expanding our view of community.
- And increasingly recognize the whispers of Holy Love by being together and helping one another see and hear.
It's finally dawning on us that more can happen through an environment of connection than through particular teachings or ministry offerings. The Spirit of belonging and solidarity works between us. And then that's what we take into the world.
Isn't that humbling, especially for those of us with a history of developing programs and sermon series? Thank God.
So what are we seeing through these environments of connection? While each person is unique, here’s what we have heard or experienced through this evolving community:
New lenses of love… for God, others and ourselves. More peace, less fear. More humility, less insecurity. A sense of belonging in just being ourselves. Healing of synapses and memories. Rediscovery of dreams and desires that may have been dormant for decades. More confidence in living authentically outward. An embrace of mystery amidst our western culture's search for certainty. And yes… frustration in the waiting, lack of control, world exasperations, unexpected internal resistance, and quirky personality differences! But all of these are welcomed and celebrated as part of the journey.
Moment by moment, God is transforming who we are and what we offer at Wilderness Well, and we simply say thank you. We look forward with hope to what lies ahead.
As the new year approaches, may you find an environment of connection to expand your perspectives, taste and hear the Divine, belong as you are, while learning to be together in our similarities and differences.
Peace and blessings to all.
Julia
Holtze
Holding It All Together
July 15, 2025
This work we’re collectively doing together - of introspection, untangling, naming, reflecting, reforming, and creating - is beautiful, meaningful, and obviously worth doing. It can also cause incredible fatigue at times. Being awake and present in this world, in your body, and in your mind at all times can be strenuous (even for the most dexterous empaths among us). Seasons of growth and revelation often also bring moments of shadow or valley. Moments of mountaintop euphoria followed by recognitions about ourselves that are less than flattering.
I was reminded of this while listening to one of my favorite Patty Griffin songs recently - “Forgiveness.” I had been feeling more mountaintop highs for a spell, and then totally fell into old patterns of detachment.
We are calling for help tonight on a thin phone line,
As usual we’re having ourselves one hell of a time.
If you’re anything like me, you can very easily lean into what I like to call “melodramatic romanticism.” Pipe in your favorite sad-girl music (Patty for me), a little rain, and you’ve got a recipe for depression-flavored tea time. Staring pensively out the window, hot beverage in hand, musing about life and the meaning of it all. (It’s giving Nicole Kidman in Big Little Lies).
Add in the horrifying news of the day (as discussed in our last newsletter - of how to stay engaged, but not lose heart) and it can oftentimes be too much. What is the remedy? What can help gently nudge me in a better direction… to keep going and keep pursuing the work of being transformed into what is new and true?
Despite my melancholy tendencies, I surprise myself by being an optimist. For some reason, I still think hope is worth hanging onto. I don’t know how or why, but I do believe that we can tap into something greater and more loving. This is easier said than done, but even when down in the dumps I find there is something magic in the mere thought of something better.
You all help me believe in building that “something better” by simply being in this community. To quote Patty again, the final lines of the song conclude:
It's hard to give,
It's hard to get,
It's hard to live,
still I think it's the best bet.
May we encourage each other with the simple thought that to hope is not in vain. Holding it all together - the highs, lows, bliss, and the really hard - with you. We are better together, even if some of us like to cosplay Nicole Kidman films when alone. 🙂
