In August of 2021, Refugia Retreats turned 5! Since 2016, we have led or collaborated on 18 events, 22 workshops, nine retreats, and four learning circles. Jodi has led two communities of practice and dozens of spiritual direction sessions, and we’ve had many conversations with folks in the Refugia network. We’ve learned so much and have met hundreds of amazing people across Alberta and beyond. We thank you each for being part of the Refugia community. None of this would have been possible without your engagement and we are so grateful to be on this journey with you all! This post is our way of both celebrating Refugia’s birthday and honouring the transitions that have come with this year.
Birthdays are always a great opportunity to reflect on the past and envision the future. We started Refugia with a vision for a province where all life flourishes: the ecological, the communal, and the personal. We have attempted to embrace this philosophy in our work by focusing on building relationships with our local landscapes, deepening our friendship with each other and the larger Refugia community, and by fostering spaces that invite personal & community growth.
Throughout the lifespan of Refugia, we’ve wanted it to be a place that fosters growth and connection in our offerings but also in ourselves. And it has. We are excited to share the ways that Refugia is evolving and also the ways that it’s impacted each of us as we move into year 6. Some of the changes that you will notice about Refugia in the year ahead will be subtle and some not so subtle. Moving forward, Refugia is going to have a more steady stream of offerings with a focus on retreat and eco-spiritual direction (coaching). We will still be committed to creating spaces that process eco-grief. We are also working to launch an eco-grief peer support group with community partners. We will continue leading retreats and rituals with nature as our guide and focus on offering more consistent Work that Reconnects sessions.
We plan to continue to partner and collaborate with folks from the Refugia network. Additionally, our commitment to connecting with the more-than-human world, listening deeply and then integrating our learnings into our community will remain the same. We still connect climate and environmental concerns with those of social justice, self exploration and community learning.
We are constantly reminded that everything is connected and that we are all interdependent. As such, Refugia wants to be a place where we can celebrate that connection and work towards healing both ourselves and the planet, creating spaces to process challenging emotions, and foster rooted community connections in this time of climate collapse. We want to be a place for exploration and invite slow, thoughtful and embodied approaches to transformation in our understandings of ourselves and our relationships with the earth. As Joanna Macy writes in her book Coming Back to Life,
“Only the whole can repair itself. You cannot fix the whole but you can take part in its self-healing. Healing wounded relationships within you and between yourself and others is integral to the healing of our world.”
As we create spaces for deep reflexive practice, ritual and connection, Refugia envisions a world where every human has access to slowness, depth and connection as a way of life.
While growth can be exciting, it can also be bittersweet. After much reflection and many team discussions, Amy has decided to take a step away from Refugia to allow for more time for other projects. Here she reflects on this decision:
Jodi and I have been incredibly close friends and teammates for the last five years. Our friendship won’t change, but our professional relationship will. I have recently gone back to school for climate leadership, and want to have more time to pursue this career focus. I have received so much value from the Refugia community and in a lot of ways this community has encouraged me to continue pursuing a career to respond to the climate crisis. So I thank everyone that has encouraged me along the way, including Jodi.
Through my work with Refugia, I have learned several things. First, that most careers are not linear; rather, they tend to morph and grow as the environment around us changes, and as we ourselves change. Second, that we are whole people, and our work is better when we approach it through that mindset. I am an environmental scientist, but I am also a spiritual person. My spirituality is deepened by my curiosity of the natural world, and my professional work is deepened by my spirituality. The last thing I have learned is that Alberta needs Refugia. As a province and as a group of people, we need places to reflect, share our values, and know that we are part of a wider community.
I don’t see this process as an end to my relationship with Refugia. Rather, it’s a change of relationship. I will be engaging with Refugia in a different way; likely more as a participant than a facilitator, more of a supporter than organizer. I am excited to see where Jodi takes Refugia into the next five years, because she has some fantastic ideas in the works.
Jodi has also been reflecting on this decision:
Refugia has always been a place where we have valued slowness, depth and ritual. Over the last year, Amy and I had many conversations about Refugia’s next steps. As I gradually realized that she’d be leaving the formal work of Refugia, I have felt both sadness and excitement for her next steps. Yet more than anything, I have felt so much gratitude for her passion and enthusiasm, welcoming and inclusive spirit, her wisdom, laughter and all the many skills and gifts that she has brought to Refugia. I am so grateful to have worked with her and learned from her over these past five years. I can’t wait to see where the next bend of her journey takes her.
We knew we needed to mark this transition with a ritual. On a sunny day in November, we set out to the Ghost Watershed region of Alberta where Refugia was born. The air was warm for a day late in the year, but the Ghost River was cool as always, glistening a dark blue, as it murmured on it’s way past the two of us, seated on it’s banks. We began as we had started, with conversation and laughter, which quickly stilled itself in favour of reflection. After a time of journaling, we shared our learnings from five years of Refugia, and what we’ve learned from five years of partnering with each other in this adventure. We’ve learned that depth and slowing down in a fast-paced world matter. We’ve learned that every season and every cycle of life invites us to release, reflect and honour its teachings. We ended the day by creating a mandala to honour each other, Refugia, the learnings and gifts that travel with us, and to recognize the closing of this circle in this way.
One of the themes that has been threaded through everything we do at Refugia is that the way that we do work is just as important as the work itself. Or in other words, how we do what we do always informs where we end up. Five and a half years in, we are transitioning, evolving and growing. As Refugia changes with us, we trust the way that we each choose to move forward in this world and we can’t wait to see what’s next for each other and for Refugia.
As we mark this transition ourselves, we want to also invite the Refugia community to reflect on it and to honour Amy’s departure by sending notes of well-wishes to Amy. You can send these to info@refugiaretreats.com.
Thank you for accompanying us on this journey.
Amy & Jodi
Macy, J., & Brown, M. Y. (2019). Coming back to life. New Society Publishers.