Ghost Ranch

some of the huge takeaways and revelations that I had on this retreat, as well as some really cool art that I made and just how much this retreat is still shaping me to this day.

I just want to take some time and reminisce about my experience at the Ghost Ranch Retreat Center on a retreat called Call of the Wild Soul.

What's so special about Ghost Ranch is, if you're not familiar, It is just a gorgeous wide open space and it's actually the place that Georgia O'Keeffe spent her summers for like 40 years.

She would spend her summers there painting and she even bought part of the property.

It used to be a dude ranch before it became like the retreat center that it is today.

it felt like kind of our last adventure was just the two of us and our dog and it was kind of like okay we're the next chapter's coming we're not exactly sure what it's going to be what it's going to be like

yeah but

it did feel like we were so i don't know do you think that that kind of led to the Ghost Ranch experience?

I connected to something so much deeper along the way and I rediscovered my intuition and this inner knowing that has helped guide me ever since.

A few years later, I got to go to one of her retreats at the Ghost Ranch in New Mexico, and I was three months pregnant at the time, and that retreat became a pivotal point for me as an artist.

My experience there not only helped me as an artist, but it laid an incredible foundation for my journey as a mom.

I'll include a link to a separate post all about this retreat because there's so much to share.

And right now we're in early August.

Uh, so it's been about nine months that I first came to your dojo, then we, um, did this samurai takeover at Ghost Ranch, and then from there we've taught a couple of weekends together in Oxford and Santa Fe, and just recently in Maine.

And I've been in Santa Fe training with you for a couple months and at different times, so we're at a di- different level of knowing each other and knowing each other's work.

And we're gonna be, um, you're gonna be joining Jaguar Fight Club in September.

Maybe it's-

We, we actually shot not too far away from where they were s- filming, um, Oppenheimer at the time, and we remember, like, some- there was a rumor of like, "Oh, Matt Damon's staying at that hotel," and like, you know, "They're shooting at Ghost Ranch down the, you know, down that way, and they're building-"

Yeah

... "a whole town." Anyway, um, uh-

I hope that you enjoy today's offering, brought to you by the Academy of American Poets.

This is Kristin Lukey, reading my poem, "Ghost Ranch." Once again, I’ve brought my dead dog to the party.

Not the box of ashes, but the pen-drawn sketch my friend Leni made six days after she died.

Or five.

And then I tell this story about this facilitator who I met years ago now, five years ago.

Maybe it was at Ghost Ranch.

Maybe you were there.

I don't know.

Thank you for listening.

[gentle music] Learn more about our work and the work of spiritual companionship on our website, sdicompanions.org. What does it mean to push the river when life asks more of us than we feel capable of giving? When is it time to stop striving and listen for the current beneath us? And how might spiritual presence, even in the midst of difficulties, become expressions of love? Enjoy this conversation between Reverend Seju and Mirabai Starr as they explore themes for our upcoming Ghost Ranch retreat in April 2027.

I'll tell you more about that trip, uh, at the end of this episode.

So here is, um, what I've been thinking.

It, this is not a test of the ego, right? Although we could go down that, you know, which is like, "I'm so tough, I'm just gonna force my way through this, just like I forced my way through everything else, and I'm gonna prevail." And that's the dominant impulse that we see in, in Western capitalism and Western management, and in Western, a lot of Western spirituality, quote-unquote, is premised on that.

Now, you know, it, it's arguable that a lot of the basis of that is the patriarchy, and, and, um, I acknowledge that.

But I wanna shift to Ghost Ranch for a minute.

Sure.

The black place...

It's about 150 miles from Ghost Ranch, and as you come to it over a hill, it looks like a mile of elephants.

Gray hills all about the same size, with almost white sand at their feet.

When you get into the hills, you find that all the surfaces are evenly crackled, so walking and climbing are easy.