When Joseph Rosado was only five, he and his family immigrated from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to New York. He wasted no time in launching an entrepreneurial career. By the time he was 12, he had his own shoe shining stall — more akin to a shoe box — on Wall Street. As an outsider on Wall Street, he says, he learned how to be understanding and patient with others as to his surprise, that’s all that was needed to ensure good business.
As a Puerto Rican immigrant who barely knew any English, he faced a lot of racism and abuse while attending parochial schools from the likes of his nuns and peers. Eventually the painful experience led him to question and explore his faith. “Where’s this almighty God? You’re teaching me here about Jesus, and on one hand, you’re beating me.” His real venture into spirituality began in 1992, when his father passed away. He was a half-hour late to being with his father when he died.
“I looked at him and I started to realize, huh, there are so many things he didn’t even tell me,” Rosado recalls.
So he rented a room above a health food store, and on one odd Sunday, he hosted a workshop he called Things My Father Never Told Me.
“I wanted to hear from other men. I said, ‘Well if five men show up, I’m happy.’ 85 showed up.”
The men shared a common emotional concern. They had all wished their fathers had told them “I love you” more often, Rosado said. This was his first time teaching interconnectedness and spirituality, and it would not be his last.
After hosting his first retreat, Rosado began to work as an electrician — where he formed a friendship with the late Andy Warhol — and ran several successful businesses including a yoga center that brought creatives from around different spaces together, dedicated to creating a safe space for women, or New York’s first CD-only store. He says each one of these ventures was a course in the curriculum of life that were preparing him for his ultimate plan, a meditation retreat center like none other. But there was no time as influential as Rosado’s time as a guardian of the Chalice Well in Glastonbury, England, a place for spiritual gathering where Rosado crafted his original idea.
It was under rather coincidental circumstances that he ever ended up as guardian. He says that he had two tickets to Cancun, “with a couple of margaritas”, when his friend invited him to the Well. The day before he left his trip, he heard that they were putting out job applications for a guardian, and out of the 500 applicants Rosado was chosen.
“Imagine that! A boy weekending from New York, going to one of the most holy sites, and I took care of that place,” Rosado laughs. There he was tasked with taking care of the grounds and leading workshops, and on one of those retreats is where he met Nina Patrick.
Patrick was mentored by Barbra Marx Hubbard, a global visionary who knew Rosado’s then wife at the time, who encouraged Nina to go on a retreat led by Rosado. After returning home, Rosado contacted her, impressed by her leadership during the retreat, and asked if she had wanted to help lead one of his upcoming retreats. Unfortunately, before the retreat in February, 2014, Rosado suffered a stroke.
“He’s a very determined person and within six months of that stroke, we were leading the retreat together, and he was climbing the mountains,” Patrick chuckles. One of Rosado’s final tasks as guardian was to craft plans for a new retreat house, one that would never be built, but rather became the vision that has fueled Rosado for so long,
After their retreat, Rosado and Patrick got to work and founded the Miracles of the World Foundation, or Milagro World Center, a registered non-profit organization dedicated to connecting individuals towards the movement to positive change. A movement that has been identified as a want within individuals to be and do good, a somewhat nebulous term that truly manifests differently in everyone.
Wild Raspberry Resale Boutique and Warehouse in Grayslake is one of Rosado’s recent endeavors, and through volunteer opportunities, workshops and retreats, it creates an entry point for the everyday individual to begin exploring spirituality. When entering the boutique you are instantly greeted by meticulously crafted displays of luxury vintage goods. The entire warehouse is hallmarked with taste, including the staff.
Ashton Dodt, who’s fresh out of high school, is Wild Raspberry’s assistant manager, and credits the organization for his own personal growth. Before connecting with Wild Raspberry, he says, he was feeling insecure and lost.
“I just didn’t feel like my own person,” he recalls.
Dodt remembers his first day at Wild Raspberry. After he finished a stressful shift, Rosado gave him a note with some encouraging advice. Dodt was looking for a job, but instead found a community to grow with. His story is not unlike many others who wandered in looking for beautiful clothing, and left wanting to explore spirituality, and Wild Raspberry provides the means. Whether it be through workshops held on their stage, or retreats out of store, Patrick says, “we want Wild Raspberry to be… an entry point into community and into this movement for positive change.”
Ultimately, Rosado wants to enact that vision from the Chalice Well, a retreat center where he can teach and inspire others. Equipped with the specialized expertise from his previous ventures, he feels confident in the future. Wild Raspberry and the Milagro World Fund have worked for years dedicating time and money towards positive change and don’t plan on stopping. “Our vision is for it to be a lasting force for good,” says Patrick.
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