Christine Winebrenner Irick, Lotus Sojourns Founder with Wakami artisans in Guatemala

A DNA-Deep Desire for Sisterhood

Straight talk time. How are you doing? How are you really, deep in your bones?

Are you counting the hours to your next day off?

Are you on day 5,439,194 of no childcare?

Are you in a career transition?

Bored?

Do you wish you had more time to spend with your friends?

Are you overwhelmed? Busy? Tired?

Alone?

We’re right there with you.

I created Lotus Sojourns out of a belief that the travel landscape was missing space for women to heal, connect, and empower one another. This growth doesn’t happen in a space of overwhelm, grief, and stuckness.

The growth happens when we connect, deeply, with one another.

Women must connect. We must gather. It’s in our DNA, deep within us, and when that meaningful connection is missing, we start to feel lost.

How does a “trip” create community?

A sojourn can be defined as “a temporary stay.”

When we look deeper, we can see why that word is a perfect match for the type of journey we curate at Lotus Sojourns.

We don’t go on a trip, go on vacation, or visit.

We stay.

We spend a short time embedded within the culture, experiences, and day-to-day life of the communities that host us.

Together with our Impact Partners, Lotus Sojourns designs customized travel to suit our mission of connection, exploration, and transformation. We select partnerships and experiences that align with values of sustainability and global equity. As often as possible, we partner with groups that operate under fairtrade principles, ensuring mutually beneficial experiences.

We choose locations that are off the beaten path (like our Alaska and Montana women’s wilderness retreats!) and full of possibility.

And before we even step foot onto the Sojourn, we prepare.

That’s where the beautiful Sojourner community is born and raised.

The connection is sparked the moment a Sojourner says, “YES! I’m ready for this!”

Following that first point of contact, we share hopes, dreams, and details of our Sojourn in a series of e-mail communications, books and articles, and most importantly, inspiration and information sessions. We learn about the destination, the community, our fellow Sojourners, and our Sojourn leaders. We embrace the right-where-we-are mentality in order to move forward together.

Creating Spaces of Love, Equity, and Opportunity

In her groundbreaking book, Beyond Guilt Trips: Mindful Travel in an Unequal World, Dr. Anu Taranath writes,

“When I wake in the morning, stretch, and begin my day, people in different pockets of the planet rest. I live my day well, and hopefully and in small ways, create spaces of love, equity, and opportunity for the people around me. Later that night when I fatigue, others for whom it is morning take over the global task of repair and change. They wake and stretch, and begin in their own ways to live well, and hopefully and in small ways, create spaces of love, equity, and opportunity in their own communities. When some of us wake, others rest, and when we rest, others wake. Night here, morning there. Morning here, night there.

This, to me, is what embodies global citizenship. Night here, morning there connects each of us to a roster of badassery, folks around the world who live near us, folks who we meet on our travels, and folks we hear about in the stories we share and the books we read. Within this worldwide community, we can all offer one another rest and hope as we forge links and make change.”

We are reading Dr. Taranath’s book this month in our Lotus Book Sojourn and you can join us for our next 3-month journey beginning in April.

I chose to call our journeys Sojourns because before, during, and after the Sojourn, we forge deep connections in ways that honor our DNA.

We show up for one another, exactly as we are. We keep one another accountable while we offer an empathetic sounding board for life and inner reflection. We listen. We contribute. We lead. We honor. We grow. We empower.

And we sojourn.

Enjoy your journey,

Christine

P.S. It is FINALLY time to Sojourn again. You can apply to join our upcoming journeys beginning March 8 on International Women’s Day!