Following the Deeper Stream through the Wild Thread of Hope
A Two-Day Retreat on the Perennial Wisdom Path, Christian Mysticism, and the Sacred Arc of Our Stories
July 31-August 2, 2026
with Valerie Dodge Reyna & Robert Rife
Together, we will explore how the mystics, contemplatives, poets, and wisdom teachers have named this deeper way – not as a path of certainty or religious performance, but as a living movement through wound, longing, surrender, beauty, truth, and love. With the hopeful wildness and sacred imagination of Martin Shaw as one of our companions, we will look again at the Christian story as a path of homecoming: a way of recovering the sacred self, learning to remain present to mystery, and discovering the living heart of Christ beneath inherited maps that may have grown too small.
This two-day retreat will include teaching, full liturgy, music, contemplative practice, engaging with the natural world, journaling, breakout groups, shared reflection, silence; all as embodied participation. It will be personal, interactive, and spacious – a retreat for those who are not looking for easy answers, but for a deeper way of seeing, living, praying, and belonging.
As overnight guests, you will be invited to enter a more immersive rhythm of prayer, rest, conversation, beauty, and community. Together we will listen for what wants to emerge next: the deeper stream beneath religion, the wild thread of hope still alive in us, and the invitation to live from a Christianity rooted in love, wisdom, mystery, and transformation.
The retreat both continues and begins anew the journey we began in our online gathering, moving from personal story into a deeper exploration of the contemplative Christian and Perennial Wisdom path. Participants were invited to listen honestly to the sacred arc of their own lives – the early moments of wonder, the spiritual maps they inherited, the places where those maps no longer held, and the deeper longings that continued to call them home. Now, we begin to gather those threads more intentionally into the larger wisdom stream that has always lived beneath the surface of Christianity: the path of transformation, hope, inner awakening, union, and return.
We welcome those who have joined from the previous online experience and those who are entering now.
Your Guides for the Journey
Valerie Dodge Reyna, B.A., M.A.
Valerie Dodge Reyna is a spiritual director, transformational life coach, chaplain, teacher, writer, artist, and retreat leader whose work centers on creating spacious, compassionate environments where people can listen deeply, tell the truth about their lives, and encounter the sacred within their own stories.
Born in Chicago, now living in Grand Rapids, MI, Valerie holds a B.A. in Education and a Master’s degree in Spiritual Formation from Spring Arbor University. She served as a chaplain in both hospital and hospice settings, accompanying people and families through some of life’s most tender thresholds. She was trained in spiritual direction by the Dominican Sisters in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and now maintains her own spiritual direction practice while also serving as part of a team of spiritual directors at Ascension Health.
Beyond her history of teaching spirituality in various settings, Valerie serves as a guide for students at the Center for Action and Contemplation. Her creative life continues to shape her vocation through leading retreats, artistic expression, writing, and contemplative practice.
Valerie has been featured in articles through the Center for Action and Contemplation and is currently co-authoring her first children’s book. At the heart of Valerie’s work is her own lived journey of healing, including the ongoing practice of recovering from codependency and people-pleasing, and learning that self-love is not selfish, but one of the most faithful ways to love others well.
Among the many roles she has held, Valerie’s most beloved is being mother to four adult children, mother-in-love to their spouses, and “Grandmama” to the bright lights housed in small bodies who call her their own.
You can learn more about her work at maneocollective.com.
Robert Alan Rife, B.A., M.A.
Robert was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He is an ordained minister with the Evangelical Covenant Church, a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, writer & poet, speaker & retreat leader…and a recovering alcoholic. His undergraduate degree is in vocal-choral performance, and he holds a Master of Spiritual Formation and Leadership from Spring Arbor University.
Most of his professional life has been as Worship and Music Director for churches in Canada and the U.S. Currently, he lives in Edinburgh, Scotland working in musical, creative, and contemplative ways among the addiction-recovery community.
His fascination lies at the intersection of life, liturgy, theology, and the arts and how they encourage spiritual formation – who we are becoming.
Greatest achievements to date: 38-year marriage to his wife, Rae, and their two sons – Calum (35) and Graeme (30) and one grandson, Ciaran James.
Blogs: On the spiritual life – www.innerwoven.me
Poetry, Essays, Fragmentia – www.robslitbits.com