Creativity, Spirit & Sacred Spaces: A Conversation with Christine Jurisich

In this enlightening episode of The Painterly Life Podcast, Shannon Grissom sits down with writer and retreat facilitator Christine Jurisich for a heartfelt conversation about creativity, spirituality, and the courage to truly listen to ourselves.

Christine shares her remarkable journey—from a fast-paced career in journalism to creating sacred spaces where people can slow down, reconnect with their spirit, and honor their creative flow. Together, Shannon and Christine explore the importance of quiet time, authenticity, and the beauty found in life’s inevitable messiness.

This episode is an invitation to embrace creativity not just as something we make, but as a way of shaping our lives, communities, and inner worlds.

✨ Key Takeaways

• Creativity shapes not only our art, but our communities.
• Sacred spaces help us reconnect with spirit and purpose.
• Listening and quiet time are powerful tools for creative growth.
• Disciplined writing time can lead to surprising insights.
• Community is essential to spiritual and personal development.
• Creativity thrives in the real, messy parts of life.
• Self-awareness helps identify and move through creative blocks.

Chapters

• 0:00 Igniting Creativity and Inspiration
• 1:40 Christine's Creative Journey
• 6:15 Transitioning from Journalism to Spirituality
• 8:03 Creating Sacred Spaces for Reflection
• 11:18 The Importance of Listening in Creativity
• 13:59 The Role of Silence and Quiet
• 18:00 Embracing the Messiness of Creativity
• 22:50 Honoring the Flow of Creativity
• 28:23 Navigating Challenges in Creative Processes
• 32:35 Authenticity in Creative Expression

Transcript

Shannon Grissom (00:05)
Hi, I'm Shannon Grissom. Are you looking to ignite your creativity? Or how about be inspired by a steady stream of muses? Welcome to Painterly Life, the podcast that celebrates those who create, inspire, and innovate. So whether you're looking to spark your next big idea, reignite your passion, or simply soak in some creative energy,

This is the place for you. Painterly life, where every guest is a new muse, just for you.

Welcome to the Painterly Life podcast. I'm your host, Shannon Grissom. And today we are joined by Christine Juricich, a woman whose creativity flows from the tender art of helping people reconnect with their spirit. Christine is a writer, a retreat facilitator, and founderess of Retreat, Reflect, Renew Ministry, where she creates sacred spaces for people to slow down.

Listen deeply and rediscover peace. Her work is a gentle reminder that creativity isn't limited to what we make with our hands. It's also how we shape our lives, our communities, and even our quietest moments of prayer. Welcome, Christine!

Christine Jurisich (01:40)
Welcome. Am I saying welcome? I feel welcome. Thank you. Thank you. It's so wonderful to be with you.

Shannon Grissom (01:48)
I feel the same way. ⁓ I've attended your retreats, felt the benefit, and I just am happy to share your story. Let's start with your early years. What were you like creatively? How did you evolve?

Christine Jurisich (01:59)
So

Right, gosh, good question. I mean, first I have to say that I would never look, when I was a kid, would never think I was creative. That is putting the word creative on me has been such a journey. But I did always want to write and I did always have this dreamy, imaginary kind of life in my mind. And...

I did love to write and I have this wonderful memory of creating my closet with pillows, creating the sacred space in my little closet with pillows and a journal and writing in there. And I loved that. And I love that because I mean, today I have a similar kind of situation. ⁓ It's and ⁓ that's where I journal and write and create and pray. so.

creating those sacred spaces in a creative way. I never would label it that. Took a long time to label it that way. I guess it had happened from the beginning.

Shannon Grissom (03:14)
It did. So did, were you encouraged early on? Did you have mentors, your family?

Christine Jurisich (03:21)
⁓

you know, I, I did have a supportive family that supported my writing. Absolutely. and then that really encouraged me to pursue that in my career. My first career was as a journalist. I was a TV reporter and an anchor for 10 years. That was my, my dream.

my dream world, my dream job. And I loved writing. I still wouldn't have called myself creative. I would have just called myself a writer or a journalist. And that I loved asking questions and storytelling and that sort of thing. But it wasn't really until later on that I connected that with the creativity.

Shannon Grissom (04:03)
Did you have any experience as a child early on that was kind of foreshadowing of where you are today?

Christine Jurisich (04:14)
gosh, I, you know, I think really that sacred space, always wanting those sacred spaces to create, wanting to, ⁓ bring in people to do that. I liked to write plays. I remember writing a play for my sister and I and our neighbors. That was so fun to do. and I think there was always, there was always this inner conversation.

deep conversation going on. I mean, I look at poems that I wrote as a kid and I'm like, when I was trying to be, you know, so spiritual, not knowing any of those labels to put on it. So I think there was, there really was there from the beginning, just not naming it necessarily.

Shannon Grissom (05:02)
Well, I find it interesting that you have done, that your childhood was filled with writing, creating plays, doing all these creative things. And yet you were hesitant to put a label on it like that, to call it creativity. So what did you think it was?

Christine Jurisich (05:19)
Well,

I think in my mind creative people were the artists who paint like you you're the creative person You're a beautiful painter that I felt like that was or some people who make things For some reason I didn't connect the writing part or starting new things starting Programs that kind of thing. I never realized that was was creativity

for a while, it took a long time to figure that out. And then once I named it, it felt so freeing and it really, that just changed everything.

Shannon Grissom (05:58)
So when you had this media background and that's what you studied in college, what happened to have you shift from that corporate lifestyle to where you are today?

Christine Jurisich (06:15)
Right.

Oh gosh, do you have a couple of hours? Okay, let me summarize this quickly. I was deeply into my career. I loved it. I loved being a journalist. I loved telling stories. I loved putting words and pictures together and producing them. I decided to stay at home when I had my kids and...

I recognize that is such a privilege and I was definitely grateful to be able to do that. But there was also a loss of identity and self-esteem and it was a very difficult time to kind of figure out, navigate who am I if I'm not writing? And now I look back and I see a lot of that also was I wasn't creating. ⁓ so it was, you I had a lot of depression during that time. It was really difficult.

I found a spiritual growth ministry that really awakened and changed my life. It put together spirituality, psychology, self-esteem, self-acceptance, and really looking at your gifts and call to serve. And that just awoke something really big in me and really just changed the trajectory of my life. And then I became very involved in that ministry and then became a leader and worked in it. And then slowly felt called to

write my book. that really, that was really the shift into getting into something else. I felt like, okay, this, I love writing. This is really, but I love getting in touch with ⁓ the spirit and helping, helping create that space for other people to do that too.

Shannon Grissom (08:02)
So tell us about, as far as creating space, that's what your book does. I think that kind of kickstarted it for me. So tell us about Retreat Reflect Renew and how that evolved and.

Christine Jurisich (08:16)
Yeah, I really love telling this story to people who are wanting to write or wanting to be creative and don't know where to start. So many people say that they have a book inside of them and they're not really sure what to do. I felt, you know, I was busy in the ministry I was working in. I felt like I had something else to create and I didn't know what it was. And it got me to a place where I like, I literally felt it, but I didn't know what to do about it. All the different...

methods I had been used to using to discern where I was called weren't working. So I made a discipline that every single day I would write, just have a certain amount of scheduled time. it, I mean, was free to be anything that it was. And maybe it was one minute.

of breathing and writing one sentence. If that was all I had time for that day, another day, maybe it was 20 minutes of going deep into dreams and desires and wishes and all of those kinds of things. but it was a discipline, no matter, it looked different every single day, but a discipline to schedule a time. And then after a couple of months, I saw it was a book. And I mean, no one was more surprised than me that I was to write a book.

So that's how the very beginning of it. I really, when people are new or people are wanting to write a book or wanting to start something new, I really encourage them to set that discipline time each day to just listen, listen to your heart, listen to your soul, write journal, let it be whatever, whatever it's supposed to be. will reveal itself to you. Absolutely. So then, ⁓

So then I wrote the book, Retreat, Reflect, Renew, A Personal Journal for a More Sacred You. I started ⁓ giving retreats on it and started encouraging people to do book groups on it. I've sensed this need for community, which is really where my heart and passion is. And that was my work in the last ministry was small group faith sharing. And so I started

I invited people to come together and just help me listen to that. What does that mean? How do we connect in community? What is this supposed to be? And eventually it turned into a ministry, a nonprofit, and an organization that creates in-person retreats, online retreats, really with a real desire to help cultivate community and help people deepen their spirituality.

in a way that can be however it needs to be for you. Grow in your own pace, in your own way. It's definitely something that I try to make gentle, welcoming, inclusive.

Shannon Grissom (11:18)
Well, I think the listening, you do make it welcoming and inclusive. I love that you have ⁓ in-person options, you have online options. So there's always a way for somebody to participate ⁓ and your blog. So there's always a way to connect. I think the thing that really strikes me out of your ministry is the listening part because

For me, I am so put it out there. Let's just create, make, go, go, go. And what I found is that I need to, before I do that, I need to stop and listen because I might be getting on the wrong train.

Christine Jurisich (12:10)
I hear you. I'm managing that myself all the time. Yeah, listening is so important. And what that means really being able to have a disciplined, quiet time. The way that I do that is every morning I start my day with prayer time. It's quiet time in my little sacred space. really, actually,

I allow that whole morning to be my writing time or focus time. try not, I have a pretty ⁓ tight boundary to not have meetings until the afternoon. So I can really have that time being for quiet listening of where I'm supposed to be in my writing and what I'm doing in the ministry. And I really think... ⁓

We need to be walked through what that means. Silence and quiet can be scary. And that's a real, a real thing that we really try to walk people in. We're doing a retreat right now, listening for the still voice of God and really helping people just get used to silence a little bit, get used to pausing, get used to the quiet and, and notice what's happening around them.

And I think that is where that is opening up a space for the creativity to take place. mean, in my ⁓ belief, creativity is a gift from God. And when I use the word God, I use that with this openness and awareness that your listeners will be using the word that makes sense to them. That defines their infinite being, their sense of...

otherness and oneness beyond themselves. So I really believe creativity is a gift from God. It's always there. It takes place in different ways and in all of us. Here I was thinking it was only in you, the painter. It is in me and it is always in me. It's just a matter of, it's in all of you. It's just a matter of allowing that to take place.

Shannon Grissom (14:16)
Ha ha.

Christine Jurisich (14:28)
having quiet time, working on self-awareness, noticing what is getting in the way of where you are supposed to create something, write something, start something. And creating might be, know, starting ⁓ a difficult conversation in a creative way that you need to have in a relationship that you have. So that creativity takes on so many different ways, but it's always there.

What can we do to remove all the stuff, all of our needs and expectations and fears and ego and ego's not bad. It's something to just know about and be aware of what gets in the way of just really listening. It's always there. It is always there.

Shannon Grissom (15:22)
Well, I like how you hold your space sacred and your time sacred for creativity, for listening. And I know that when I don't do that, that's when I get stressed and I'm in trouble and I just have to stop and like, wait a minute, I'm running amok.

Christine Jurisich (15:39)
Me too.

It's like an everyday practice to really, there are so many distractions in the world and so many distractions in our head. So in my head. So yeah, it's an everyday discipline. Absolutely.

Shannon Grissom (16:03)
Well, I used to, before I'd start each painting session, I would light a candle, and that would be a reminder to me that, first of all, it's not all coming from me, it's coming from spirit. And then when I was through, I'd blow the candle out to remember to say thank you.

Christine Jurisich (16:25)
I love that.

Shannon Grissom (16:28)
But then what happened was I started using, I was painting in oils with turpentine. I'm like, But I did it enough that it's an ingrained thing. as I'm cleaning my brushes, as I'm putting my tools away, I'm saying thank you for whatever was given to me. And I used to approach every session with

the goal of making a masterpiece. And now ⁓ I'm still judgy, but it's not about ⁓ what I created that day, unless of course I'm working on something that's, I can't say it doesn't always happen, but what's happening is I really truly appreciate the experience now rather, whatever happened and that separate.

from what the canvas looks like. Because there are days when ⁓ I just need to let things out. And so it doesn't look so pretty on the canvas.

Christine Jurisich (17:33)
No, that really sounds like my writing process too. There are where I'm just needing to journal whatever's coming out and maybe what's coming out is anger about something. Grief, ⁓ hurt, loss, gratitude, joy. mean, sometimes there's just stuff that is just... ⁓

Shannon Grissom (17:37)
So tell me about the hat.

Christine Jurisich (18:00)
needing to process and that's okay too. I've kind of developed a rhythm of seeing sometimes that there's stuff that just needs to get out. It's not something that I need to be publishing or putting in my weekly reflections. It's just a process to get there. You know, I love this conversation on creativity. This is such a gift for me, Shannon. It really is because what I noticed is ⁓ it made me realize

I have all this creativity. I'm always thinking of ideas. And I want to quickly, you say, make it a masterpiece. For me, like make a deadline to be something that I'm going to actually produce. There's a retreat I'm thinking about right now ⁓ that I may create. And then I need, and then the second I put a deadline on it,

then there's kind of the pressure of some of the creativity can kind of go away, diminish a little bit because then I'm doing the whole like, okay, it has to be this and it has to be done by this. And the reality is there are deadlines, absolutely. But living in that tension of, what is the deadline really? Are these self-imposed deadlines? What does the deadline need to be? Can I just let this simmer?

and let it be what it's supposed to be and be in that journey is what I hear you describing and you're just accepting every day. Let me be in this journey and then it will reveal itself. The spirit will reveal whether it really is supposed to be a retreat or was this just something that just came to me and I'm just kind of thinking about it maybe in two years. That's what it really is supposed to be is something else. It just kind of gets me to that other side.

So listening, the older I get, I'm better at not doing everything I think of because, like that was exhausting. That hurts slowing down and listening. Just because that's an exhausting way to live. Cause my brain's always going and always creating things. yeah.

Shannon Grissom (20:20)
I'm

laughing hard because I totally get that. I do. And ⁓ I do morning pages, which from Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way. So every morning when I get up, I write three pages longhand. And it's a steady stream of consciousness. And some of it's sniveling, some of it's brilliant ideas, and other of it's just garbage. But one of the things that came out a couple days ago was about

what self-imposed unnecessary limitations am I putting on myself? Because I think things need to be done a certain time or a certain way, or and nobody else like me is driving this. And I thought, wow, it's time to re-examine my thoughts on everything, really. And slow down because I'm just, yeah.

Christine Jurisich (21:07)
I

love that I'm doing that this week. I mean, I have a retreat this weekend that I'm giving. And then I have some other little things that are stewing in me. And I'm wanting to tend to them. I'm wanting to, you know, I found myself getting really frustrated yesterday with myself. And I really just had to step back and notice, what are these expectations I'm putting on myself? Like, let's just slow down and just be present to ⁓

where I am called to be in this moment. yeah, gosh, is really a lifelong journey to really notice those things and create disciplines and practices to listen. The artist in me, the creator in me wants to create, create, create. And then I have this other side of me that wants to

achieve and have checklist and to do. And then ⁓ I'm a spiritual doctor as well. And so I can look at it all and say, okay, what am I hearing in this tension? What's going on in that? Why am I not able to create right now? Or why are things not coming? Or why are why am I getting frustrated that I have all these things that I want to do all of them at the same time?

kind of can back up what's happening in me that's getting in the way of just allowing that creativity, however it's to be expressed in the moment, be expressed.

Shannon Grissom (22:50)
Yeah, I love that you notice what you notice. You're very self-aware and so that you do take a step back when things are turbulent or not flowing. Wow. So I think about, you bring creativity into everything you do. How does that fold into your retreats?

Christine Jurisich (23:03)
Yeah.

Right. Well, the way I answer that would be kind of going back to what I said, I feel like creativity is a gift from God. And so as long as I create the space for me to allow that to happen, it does just happen. Several weeks I work on these retreats and well, longer than weeks.

I have a whole, I've been working on them for years. have a cycle, a three year cycle of six retreats that we do every fall and spring online and in person and every year them. ⁓ You know, developing, redeveloping, adding, changing. And so creating the quiet space to be able to just listen to what I want to write, listen to the prayer practices. I really like.

⁓ inviting people to different spiritual practices. So sometimes that will mean ⁓ movement with a song. Sometimes that will mean, you know, just I have crayons and paper on the table and just drawing, coloring, whatever comes to mind based on that concept that we are talking about in that moment. ⁓ Movement, art, music.

nature, walking outside, noticing what's outside, how that speaks to you. And so I like to try different spiritual practices myself, creating this quiet space to just listen to see what would work best in this situation. And then being in the retreat and listening to see like, who's here today? What am I seeing is needed today? You know, change things up depending on.

where the energy is in the moment.

Shannon Grissom (25:21)
Wow, well, you you've done this all on a relatively small budget. So tell me how your creativity works with that because you've so much with.

Christine Jurisich (25:31)
Right, right.

I love inviting people to be a part of ministry, to be a part of community. And so that has been, ⁓ that has definitely been an act of creativity is running a ministry. This part of me of executive director, you know, owning that role and seeing like, okay, this, this is now, you know, bigger than me. And, ⁓ and seeing how to

create a leadership team to do that. I love finding people and seeing their gifts and asking them to share with the ministry. And so we have a lot of volunteers. have, and we have a team of paid people with a small amount of hours and somehow to make it all work and just a beautiful team to work together. But all of that has really been.

listening to others, getting advice from others, people who've come in and really helped form a leadership team, how that process should be, and see all of that. My creativity comes in noticing the gifts that people have and seeing how we can all work together to use them. But really, that is not something I have done.

all by myself, that is really an area that I just need lots of help and advice and people coming in and showing us how to make it work.

Shannon Grissom (27:08)
Very, very collaborative experience.

Christine Jurisich (27:12)
Yes, I like to work with people. For a lot of years, it was me writing by myself and creating a lot of things by myself. And I'm an introvert. So a lot of that I loved and a lot of that I'm called to. I have to have that. Have to. You know, we're just talking about that. But I need to be with people also. I learn a lot from that. I get energy from that. so sharing in that together is it's such a gift. I'm so grateful for it.

Shannon Grissom (27:43)
So have you ever through all this time had ⁓ a particular challenging time and it was hard to get back into your spiritual creative mode?

Christine Jurisich (27:54)
Absolutely. are always, I can't think of one specific time. There are always times woven into every month, probably, know, years. Some years are harder than, have been harder to others when as there was a point where I was creating, creating, creating, and then it was chaos. ⁓ We have an administrative assistant and she's an angel and

Shannon Grissom (28:17)
Yep. ⁓

Christine Jurisich (28:23)
It was between the two of us kind of crazy. so, you know, trying to understand how to having to put a lot of time into the business part, executive director that that was probably the, that's been probably the hardest because that drains a lot of my creative time. But what I do again, step back and just notice where's my energy need to be right now. And so really just trying to be okay with that. I'm not saying I'm always okay with it, but

⁓ but noticing where am I called? This is a moment where I'm not called to create new material, a new retreat. This is a time where I'm called to use my creativity. may not feel like creativity because it may not feel ⁓ good to me. Like it was, it was a lot to, I was writing out checklists and just, you know, writing down all the things I did to try to create this team and

really having to just notice why am I here in this moment? What's going on? Is this where I'm supposed to be? And just be in it. just be in it. It's not, ⁓ you know, there are sometimes you need to take action to get out of it, but sometimes it's a matter of, this is probably where I'm supposed to be right now.

Let me just lean into it and be with it and see what I can learn from it. And without me noticing, there's creativity, ideas, and understanding, empathy, things that are developing for another time that are really helpful.

Shannon Grissom (30:11)
So it sounds like honoring the flow really helps facilitate everything else. Honoring and just letting it happen, letting it be, and working with it rather than bucking it. Like right now, I just finished an ⁓ intense ⁓ commission that I was working really hard on for over a month. so then I have ideas for other paintings that I want to start after that, but some music keeps popping.

And it's like niggling, you cannot not not do this. So so ⁓ so I'm like, okay, right now I need to be writing. And that's, you know, that's what needs to happen. And same thing with I might do the podcast editing might I take things ahead of time, so that I allow that flow to work and so that I'm not always under a deadline. I have that I I have a

production schedule or release schedule that I stick to, but I like to take way in advance to allow for ⁓ life and just the flow of what's happening. So yeah, I'm with you on that. It really makes a difference when I pay attention. And there are times when I know all this, but I'm still pushing to make something happen in Shannon time and.

And spirit saying, no way.

Christine Jurisich (31:35)
my

gosh. What's coming to me also is that recycled material. mean, I think there are times where ⁓ we use reflections from the past. We send out a weekly reflection. And there's some months where we use a lot of reflections from the past because I'm needing that space of no deadline to really think of the next. ⁓

Yeah, there's some of that space where I just, have to be off the deadline schedule. And, ⁓ you know, there was a deep, a deep dark time of grief that I, ⁓ well, I'm always, you know, grief stays with you forever, but there is a time I was deep, deep in it. And I think, again, being in it and writing from that

So I imagine, you know, painting from a place of...

Shannon Grissom (32:40)
I have

Christine Jurisich (32:42)
you know, maybe not always being happy or, know, I imagine that shows another side that really gifts someone if you're painting from a place that is really rough. I know writing from a place that is really rough and me that, you know, it's a gift from other people, so for other people. So ⁓ really just being in the moment, wherever it's taking you is really important because we want to be authentic.

as creative people and not be here to show what we think society wants us to show. But give from a place of the real. And the real is messy. The real isn't perfect. The real is hard. Sometimes the real is great and joyous and fun. It's all of that. All of it belongs. And we want creativity to express.

all of it. ⁓

Shannon Grissom (33:42)
⁓ I love that there are, actually my latest commission ⁓ was somebody who really appreciates my wild abstract stuff. ⁓ And it's not so much abstract, but just very loose. It's as real as it gets. And so I was thinking about that. are people, I may think I'm not showing necessarily the most beautiful side or the most.

perfectly carved thing. But what I realized is there are people that see the beauty in even my painful experiences. And how awesome is that? And I see the same in other people. And so it's that authenticity that really, I think that's what really speaks to people. So, yeah.

Christine Jurisich (34:37)
Absolutely, absolutely. People can see that. We have enough image of perfection around the world. We have to be truthful about what we're experiencing in life, in the messiness of it and the frustrations of it, the sadness of it, and the beauty in all of it.

Beauty with a capital B. love John O'Donohue talks about, he's a beautiful author, spiritual author and poet. And he talks about beauty and beauty with a capital B because it's beauty from God. And that really makes you look at beauty in a whole new way.

Shannon Grissom (35:30)
Wow. Well, Christine, you're always incredibly inspiring. Where can people find more information about you?

Christine Jurisich (35:40)
Yes, thank you. So my website, retreatreflectrenew.org, those are three R words that are hard to remember. I recognize that, but I just loved that name. So retreatreflectrenew.org. And that's where we have a way to sign up for the weekly reflections, invitations to our...

online retreats that are self-paced and in-person retreats, everything there. A new five-month program that we're doing, Sacred Self, Sacred Community, to really help people cultivate community and look at self-acceptance, self-awareness, self-esteem to see who they are.

how they want to show up in the world. a lot of what we're talking about foundational material is in that program. So yes, I hope people feel that stirring in them, that they will take a look and be open, be open to the journey.

Shannon Grissom (36:53)
That's awesome. mean, I know that the better I can show up for myself, the better, ⁓ the more gifted my creations are. ⁓ Well, thank you, Christine. It's been a pleasure speaking with you and hearing about your journey.

Christine Jurisich (37:04)
Absolutely, absolutely.

I appreciate it.

Shannon Grissom (37:16)
Well, thanks everybody for hanging out with us. Please be sure to like, subscribe and share so that I can make more inspiring episodes for you. We'll see you next time. Bye bye.