A Monthly Letter

The

Stretch&Spark

A formation letter for women leaders. One reflection, one practice, one honest moment — arriving the first of every month.

Not a newsletter. A letter.

A sample from the letter
February 1  ·  Sacred Grounding

There is a 12th-century mystic named Hildegard von Bingen who had a word for what I see in almost every high-achieving woman I work with.

She called it ariditas. Dryness. The condition of a living thing that has been cut from its root. Still standing. Still performing the shape of a plant. But not green.

I want to ask you something directly, and I want you to answer honestly, even if no one else will ever know your answer: how green are you right now? Not your output. Not your calendar. Your interior. The part of you that exists when the metrics stop running.

This month's practice is for the dryness. Not to fix it — I don't believe the dryness can be fixed from the outside in. But to take it seriously enough to breathe into it. To let it tell you what it needs.

With you in the practice,
Dr. Aubrey Escobar
Every issue contains
One Formation Reflection
Something alive in Dr. Escobar's practice or research that month. Interior, precise, honest — not curated wellness.
One Practice Invitation
A specific, doable practice tied to the reflection. Something for tomorrow morning, not someday.
One Thing from the Tradition
A mystic, a text, a figure from the Christian contemplative tradition — made relevant to the present moment.
One Honest Moment
Something real from the interior life. Not performed vulnerability. Something true, and not tidied up.
Coming issues
01
The body I have been ignoring
Formation
02
What Hildegard knew about burnout
Theology
03
The swallowed word
Voice
04
Forty days again
Practice
05
On receiving
Formation
06
The ground holds
Theology
"This is the only thing that arrives in my inbox that I actually read all the way through."
— Community Member, Sacred Grounding

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