The Interior Life has applied for a five-year, $481,572 Lilly Endowment grant through the Exploring Christian Practices Initiative.

That grant would transform everything. It would fund associate facilitators. It would expand to reach 30+ cumulative leaders over five years. It would build the infrastructure to sustain this work long-term.

But the Lilly decision comes in 2027. We can't wait to begin.

The Founding Patron campaign funds the bridge year. It keeps the work going now — the three cohorts, the weekly labyrinth walks, the spiritual direction. It funds me as Program Director so this work doesn't have to compete with photography and consulting.

If the Lilly grant is awarded, the Founding Patron gifts ensure continuity and demonstrate that this ministry has grassroots support.

If the Lilly grant is not awarded, the Founding Patrons become the foundation that sustains this work indefinitely.

Either way, your gift matters. Your gift funds a person who is called to this work and who has spent years preparing for it.

That's one Program Director — fully devoted, without divided attention, able to create the kind of formation work that requires depth and presence.

With that funding:

The cohorts already meeting keep meeting. Uninterrupted. Fully tended.

Another cohort launches — extending the work to more leaders who have been waiting.

Weekly labyrinth walks continue and expand. Public Visio Divina pauses go online, reaching spiritual seekers beyond San Diego.

Spiritual direction deepens. The relational accompaniment that happens between retreats becomes more spacious.

Associate facilitators are identified and begin training, building the human infrastructure to sustain this work long-term.

The Interior Life moves from "something Sarah fits into her schedule" to "the full expression of Sarah's call."

Flourish San Diego, a current Lilly Endowment grant recipient, conducted a Ministry of Thriving Survey of 86 San Diego pastors (IRB-approved).

The findings are direct:

When asked what they need most, pastors said: Rest. Tied for #1 out of every possible category.

When asked what replenishes them most, pastors said: Retreats. The #1 practice — above all others combined.

Personal well-being correlates significantly with congregational effectiveness (Pearson r = .413, p < .01).

And here's Flourish's own conclusion: "Other mechanisms may be needed to better support leaders in the personal well-being dimension."

The Interior Life is precisely that mechanism.

Most contemplative ministries hand you one good day and send you home. That was never enough for me either — and it wasn't enough for the pastors who came to pilot retreats.

What I offer instead is a multi-year formation journey. The same small group, returning together, every six months, for as long as five years. Not a program. A formation journey.

Here's what happens:

You experience silence and solitude retreats. One full day at a Franciscan retreat center with nothing to perform. Just enough silence to notice how tired you actually are. A handcrafted retreat guide. The labyrinth. Scripture. Breath prayer. Visio Divina. The felt sense of being tended rather than performing.

Between retreats, I walk alongside you. We meet for spiritual direction. We talk honestly — not performatively — because exhaustion doesn't wait for the calendar. I'm available.

The same faces, every six months, for years. Trust isn't fast. I've never once seen it built any other way.

And eventually — if you stay — longer stretches of silence. Days of retreat that used to terrify me and now feel like home. A capstone experience of what it means to rest, to be received, to know yourself as beloved.

This isn't expertise. This is invitation. I've sat in every room I'm leading people into. I've done the work myself.