I recently caught an episode of Joseph Rosendo’s Travelscope. He had visited Ireland and went through several areas outside of Dublin. I absolutely love that show, as he has real conversations with artisans, chefs/home cooks, restaurant owners, market vendors, and he really gets into the beauty of lands and its people. He was moved to tears after visiting the Famine Museum. This is a somber way that we humanize travel. We step on the lands of peoples, learn their past, their joys and pains. As an American, each of my immigrant ancestors have a story they carried. Many we’ll never know, some have been passed down through storytelling. But making a pilgrimage to an ancestral land brings their story to life. It’s a grounding way to learn about the hardships our ancestors had to endure before making the difficult decision to leave the land they’ve known, their families, their language, their food. They had to embrace a fully new way of life while still carrying the emotional difficulties of events going on back home.
I know many of my ancestors left due to war, general civil unrest, poverty, among other reasons. As European descendents, people left in order to live. It’s a version of an ultimate sacrifice. When I visited my great-grandmother’s home in Croatia, it just “felt” sad. After her mother died and her father remarried to have more children, she left behind so much in order to start over.
This last year, I took a course to dive deeper into the retreat industry. I thought to myself, what a great way to connect people to their ancestral lands (starting with Ireland), to bring writers (like me!) to places of literary richness. To have a digital detox in the wild outdoors of Scotland where we can let nature be our healer. These retreats offer a way to connect back to oneself, remember your own sacrifices, revive something you’ve always loved to do.
I decided to name my first ancestry-based retreat “Rooted in Renewal“. I have some Irish ancestry in Coleraine and have yet to trace the family. However, America itself has stark Irish roots, especially the immigration waves that came during the “famine” (which was actually a genocide). Ireland itself decided to step up their St. Paddy’s Day game because of how Americans partied during it. Having been to Milwaukee’s Irish fest (one of the largest in the world to appreciate Irish roots), it’s always incredible to see how such a tiny island has such a big impact on our roots. With the Rooted in Reneal retreat, let’s renew our understanding of cultures by connecting back to our ancestral lands. Dig into our family’s backgrounds and see the very villages they stem from. Work same bread dough recipe that has nourished our families for generations in a cooking class. Feel the weather that they have to endure each season.
After years of working in higher education and various administration jobs, connecting back to my own roots with this retreat is my own way of starting over.
Will you join?
Giants Causeway, Northern Ireland in February 2026. My third great-grandmother’s family comes from Coleraine (about 10 miles west).
