Notes from the Air

+ Upcoming Pilgrimage Registration Closing Soon

Dear Friends,

I have been traveling most of the week within and returning home from Portugal. I got lost in motion—trees a swiftness, clouds a seascape beneath the belly of the wind, the infectious laughter of a child. I will return to you next week with an essay. Today, I offer a few passages I posted recently in Substack Notes, reflections that will be the ground on which we walk at the upcoming Pecos Canyon Pilgrimage, and a reminder to register.

Wishing you in the days ahead uproars of unexpected laughter, joy perhaps (imagine that!), and the grace to bear what gravity may seem unbearable, 
with love,

Renée

---

Forthcoming

Registration for the Pecos Canyon pilgrimage will close April 15. Giving ourselves over to a Universe- and Earth-specific evolutionary context, fragranced with fiat—with “let it be”—this pilgrimage promises to nourish and fortify the inner life through these unique times.

Please email Doreen or me with questions (by reply to this email or by DM here on Substack). To register, please email Doreen Tanenbaum, Retreat Coordinator, tanenbaumd [AT] gmail [DOT] com.

Sunday, April 6, is our 1st Sunday Gathering in Silence + Reflective Conversation to follow, noon – 1:30 pm ET. Please reply to this email or DM for details and to register for the Zoom link. These gatherings are free. All are welcome.

---

---

Since ancient times, humans have set out on pilgrimage,

traveling far and wide to come home to who we are. Animated by an inborn quest, the pilgrim is on a pathless path toward a deeper order of being. The way of the pilgrim begins with and is sustained by an unceasing longing to belong to life anew.

We might say the way of the pilgrim is not unlike Life itself. Life, endlessly longing to become, feels its evolutionary way through the dark unknown. From time to time, the process continues only by moments of grace.

Some might say we live at such a threshold today. We live in a time between worlds—between old and new ways of seeing and being. With all Life on our side, we can hope we’re unfolding into an entirely new way of being human.

Where do the psychic energies come from for this Great Work? This pilgrimage will be an embodied wonderment into this question, answered from the wild depths of soul.

---

During our six days together, we’ll journey

on sacred ground in the echo of human history. We’ll gather in the Pecos River Canyon at the Abbey of Our Lady of Guadalupe, between the towering Sangre de Cristo mountains and the flat-topped Glorieta Mesa in Glorieta Pass. We’ll wander the setting of an unfolding story of human culture, thousands of years in the making: of the earliest hunters and gatherers who passed through this corridor, of Pueblo and Plains Peoples who first settled here, of Spanish missionaries and conquerors. This human unfolding in these high-desert mountains will cast an evolutionary glow on our question in these present, uniquely complex times.

We’ll journey to Pecos National Park and walk in silence in the shadows and echoes of those who came before us along ancient Pueblo and historic Franciscan Missionary ruins. We’ll ask the Land what the Land asks of us—the living Earth our cathedral, our call, our homecoming. And we’ll sit in the sanctuary of the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe who came to Juan Diego, an Indigenous elder, at a particularly auspicious time in human history, to reveal the presence of Divine Mystery in the ever-present origin of human becoming.

---

---

We’ll contemplate together the Great Work of our time

as an ecological and evolutionary imperative, invoking the pathless path of pilgrimage as a journey of human becoming. Our reflections will be inspired by Thomas Berry, Teilhard de Chardin, Jean Gebser, Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, an anonymous 19^th-century Pilgrim, and others.

Together, we’ll touch that deeper longing to nourish and sustain us.

---

Your Fellow Pilgrim

In November 2022, three years out from tumbling over a cliff of loss, I took to the road in a converted Sprinter, a roadhorse made vanhome by a man who grew up on sailboats. I did not know where I would go. I could not say how long I would stay. I vowed on Day 1 and each thereafter to not know, to unplan, and to lean headlong into every fear and fall. There were lots of falls. After nine months, bumbling toward what, at the time, I could not say, I lept out of the Arctic Ocean breathless with the revelation that longing has no end. It comes to meet you in all that is, an originary Presence closer to you than you are to yourself. I came home a forever pilgrim.

My life is devoted to human becoming—as an eco-contemplative, phenomenological philosopher, lay monk, and mentor. I hold a Ph.D. in Transformative Studies with a concentration in Consciousness Studies from the California Institute of Integral Studies. I am recipient of a research fellowship from Esalen Institute’s Center for Theory and Research for work contributing to The Future of the Body project. Since 2014, I have served on the Educator Council Board for the Center for Education, Imagination and the Natural World, a work closely mentored by the late cultural historian and eco-theologian Thomas Berry.

---

Registration + Details

To register and inquire, please email Doreen Tanenbaum, Retreat Coordinator:
tanenbaumd [AT] gmail [DOT] com

We will journey the pathless path on solo Earth walks, at archeological ruins, in meditation/prayer of the heart, morning and afternoon reflections, “heartfulness” practices that enliven wonder, presence, and affective intimacy with one another and the world, quiet periods of rest, and conversation by the fire at day’s end.

Most of this six-day gathering will take place in silence with periods of reflective conversation throughout the day.

CHECK-IN: 12–4 pm on Tuesday, May 20
Please schedule flight arrival time for check-in by 4 pm.
CHECK-OUT:  12 pm on Monday, May 26

Cost + Fine Print

COST: $1785*‡

Doreen has worked tirelessly to keep the costs as low as possible. If you can do so, please consider offering more than this baseline fee. Your generosity supports scholarship funds for fellow pilgrims who need to pay less.

*Does not include air travel and ground transportation. Information about ground transportation to and from the Abbey will be provided at registration.

‡ Annual paid subscribers to Beyond the Comfort Zone receive a 5% discount. If you prefer to apply any part of this amount to the scholarship fund, please let Doreen know when you register.

Email Doreen Tanenbaum, Retreat Coordinator: tanenbaumd [AT] gmail [DOT] com.

DEPOSIT + PAYMENT PLANS

Deposit: $437.50
Payment plan: 4 payments of $437.50. The first installment is a nonrefundable deposit due at registration.
Payment is by email invoice to allow for private, secure Credit Card installments online. 
Final payment is due May 10.

REFUNDS

Full refund 30+ days prior to May 19. April 19 is the final day for a full refund.
50% refund 15–29 days prior to May 19.
No refunds for cancellations less than 15 days prior except for emergencies.

ACCOMMODATIONS

A simply furnished, private bedroom in the guesthouse at the Abbey, without telephone or internet, offers the necessary quiet for retreat from the world. 

Each guest room has a private bathroom.

Meals are simple, hearty, organic, and gluten-free with plenty of vegan options.

Space is limited to 20 participants.

---