Find your place in the landscape
Find your place in the landscape
An invitation to a mountain retreat
For over 20 years now, a small community I am part of has been learning how to live with a different kind of rhythm. Not one dictated by urgency, productivity, or the constant churn of modern life – but one shaped by the seasons.
Year by year, we have found a cadence to personal and family life by paying attention to what already exists: the quiet wisdom of the natural world, the turning of the seasons, the rites they invite us into, and the organic liturgies that emerge when we slow down enough to notice. These rhythms don’t need to be invented; they are already there, waiting to be received, inhabited, and lived.
Out of this way of life, something else has grown.
Alongside my friend Paul Rose, I have been hosting mountain retreats in the beautiful surroundings of the Lake District. In the years since COVID, these spaces have taken on an even deeper significance. There is, it seems, a growing need for people to step out of the noise and ask more attentive, more discerning questions of their lives:
- Where am I?
- How am I?
- Who am I being called to be?
These are not questions to be rushed.
They are questions that require space – space to walk, to breathe, to listen.
Our retreats draw on the Ignatian tradition of spiritual formation, where attention, awareness, and discernment sit at the heart of the journey. Over a couple of days, we take a small, circular pilgrimage through the fells – guided by Paul, a qualified mountaineer, and accompanied by me. The mountains have a way of becoming more than just a backdrop; they become a teacher.
Nature offers insights we often cannot access elsewhere – truths that only surface when we are fully present to our surroundings.
And, of course, the mountains do not bend to our plans. The weather will do what it will. There are moments of challenge, even struggle – and moments of breathtaking beauty and uplift. Both matter. Both shape us. Both have something to say about who we are and who we are becoming.
Equally important to the walking is the welcome.
Hospitality sits at the heart of what we offer. We are always beautifully looked after by the Home Community Cafe in Earlsfield, led by Meg Fry and her wonderful team, who nourish us with food prepared with care and generosity.
This year, we’ll be gathering in slightly more comfortable surroundings than the mountain huts we’ve used in the past. We’ll be based at the Rydal Hall bunkhouse – a cluster of cottages designed for groups like ours to come together. It offers a simple but rich rhythm: walking in the day, and in the evening, gathering around wood fires with good food, conversation, and rest.
If you are new to retreating, you would be most welcome. If you are someone who already loves the outdoors and recognises it as a place of encounter and reflection, we would love to have you join us again. Everyone is welcome!
You’ll need a reasonable level of fitness to take part in the walking, but you certainly don’t need to be a seasoned mountaineer – just open, willing, and curious.
If something in you is stirring as you read this, we’d encourage you to pay attention to that.
For more information and to register, please take a look at the flyer and follow the Eventbrite link.
Places are limited!
Take part
Cost: £150 per person
A subsidised rate is available if needed – please do ask. We do not want anyone to miss out.
More from the blog
Student story: Shirley Powell
Not stopping at prison ministry, coaching, mentorship and international speaking, Shirley Powell has added studying with CMS to her schedule!
Equinox retreat
As we cross the threshold into autumn, we gather in the Lake District to reflect on the horizons within us and beyond us.
