Carole Virden

Carole is a wonderer, a walker, and a maker.  Jesus captured her heart at a young age and tethered her heart securely to His by grace. And like the Hound of Heaven, He has faithfully pursued the broken and lost pieces of her heart for His care. His grace in our midst is a constant source of wonder.

She delights in walking with people in direction who have an interest in foraging for where God has been moving in their stories and how He meets them in their days, inviting them to more deeply encounter and walk with Him. As an undergraduate and graduate student, Carole studied French and International Business. She has worked in a corporate environment as well as teaching at the university level, middle school, and elementary school. Her favorite professional role was as an elementary art teacher where she encountered Jesus singing in the hearts of children making art; these young students re-schooled her in curiosity and helped Jesus restore her own atrophied inner artist. 

She holds a Certificate of Spiritual Direction from Dovehouse Ministries in Nashville. She enjoys leading retreats, quiet days, groups and individual sessions. Wherever fitting and feasible, these experiences involve making and creating.

Carole and her husband Kevin, and their Boston Terrier Cillian have recently relocated from Franklin, TN where they lived for nearly 3 decades to the Oak Ridge/Knoxville area in the hills of East Tennessee. She and Kevin have 2 adult married children and 4 lively grandchildren. For the 2026-2027 year, Carole is offering direction virtually and in person as locations become available. 

A favorite quote from “Patient Trust”, a prayer:

“Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay.
We should skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient to be on the way to something unknown, something new…

Only God could say what this new spirit gradually forming within you will be.

Give Our Lord the benefit of believing that his hand is leading you,

and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself in suspense and incompleteness.”

—Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ excerpted from Hearts on Fire