SAVE THE DATE: Wild Tending the Future: Seeding Grief, Joy & Endurance
When: Friday, May 3 - Sunday, May 5, 2024
Where: Barrier Lake Station
The Work that Reconnects is a personal and systems activity based framework created by Joanna Macy that exists to bring us back into relationship with each other and the intelligence and self-healing powers of life on earth.
Who: Anyone who is interested in learning more about the Work that Reconnects and connecting with others about it. We hope for this group to be an opportunity to co-learn and co-facilitate on an ongoing basis.
What: A monthly meet up focused around the Work that Reconnects.
When & Where: The third Monday of the Month at 7pm; Please email for location.
Please RSVP by emailing info@refugiaretreats.com for the location and to let Jodi know that you'll be attending.
Join the University of Alberta Environmental Studies Student’s Association on February 5th for a panel discussion between leading professors and scholars on how to meaningfully navigate personal eco-grief, as well as the ways we can use our grief for good. The discussion will cover the relationship between climate change and mental health, and the role for climate optimism in our efforts to address environmental change. An interactive element will allow for the audience to connect with the speakers, with the hopes of creating community around this topic.
Register here: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/from-sorrow-to-solutions-addressing-eco-grief-through-action-tickets-789555290127
Speaker bios:
Chris Turner is one of Canada’s leading voices on climate solutions and the global energy transition. His latest book is How To Be A Climate Optimist, a survey of the first two decades of progress on solving the climate crisis. His previous books on climate, energy and technology include multiple bestsellers and winners of the National Business Book Award, the W.O. Mitchell Book Prize, and the Writers’ Union of Canada’s Freedom to Read Award. His essays and features on energy, climate and technology have appeared in The New Yorker, The Guardian, The Globe & Mail, Maclean’s, and many other publications, and won 10 National Magazine Awards.
Stephanie Olsen (she/her) is a Masters student from the School of Public Health at the University of Alberta. Her research focuses on the mental health impacts of climate change in Alberta, and the power of collective practices for honouring ecological grief and other difficult climate emotions. Stephanie is also a facilitator with Refugia, an Alberta organization that provides workshops and retreats on ecological grief, eco-anxiety, and the emotional impacts of living during times of planetary crisis. Stephanie is grateful to live, love, work and play in amiskwaciwâskahikan, Treaty 6 territory (Edmonton, AB).
Date and time: Thursday, November 16, 10:30am - 12:00pm
Location: Sustainability Hive, on the ground floor of the Mackimmie Tower, Room MT 120.
Learn more and Register here.
This in-person workshop is the second session of a 2 part-event series for UFlourish at the University of Calgary. It is aimed at addressing feelings of eco-grief, climate grief and eco-anxiety, highlighting the interconnections between resilience and well-being.
At this workshop participants will be guided through exercises that utilize creative expression to manage eco-grief and climate anxiety, and connect to self and the earth community/nature.
Facilitators:
Jodi Lammiman, Founder of Refugia Retreats
Alana-Dawn Eirikson, UCalgary Office of Sustainability
When: November 9, 2023; 10:30 am-12pm MST
Where: On Zoom
Hosted by: University of Calgary Office of Sustainability
Learn more and register here.
During the University of Calgary’s UFlourish week, the Office of Sustainability presents a two-part event series aimed at addressing feelings of eco-grief and eco-anxiety, climate grief, and highlighting the interconnections between resilience and well-being. You may attend one or both of the workshops.
The first event is an online workshop that is open to all. Take part in a guided presentation and conversation on eco-grief and climate anxiety. Facilitators will also take participants through an optional accompanying worksheet.
Facilitated by Jodi Lammiman, Founder of Refugia Retreats and Alana-Dawn Eirikson, UCalgary Office of Sustainability.
Coming Home to Ourselves: Practicing Collective Grief, Joy & Liberation While the World Unravels
When: October 20-22, 2023
Where: Ursa Retreat Centre, Rockyview County Alberta
Registration Opens Monday, Sept 18 at 12pm MT
The Work that Reconnects is a personal and systems activity based framework created by Joanna Macy that exists to bring us back into relationship with each other and the intelligence and self-healing powers of life on earth.
Who: Anyone who is interested in learning more about the Work that Reconnects and connecting with others about it. We hope for this group to be an opportunity to co-learn and co-facilitate on an ongoing basis.
What: A monthly meet up focused around the Work that Reconnects.
When & Where: The third Monday of every month at 7pm; Please email for location.
Please RSVP by emailing info@refugiaretreats.com for the location and to let Jodi know that you'll be attending.
Join Refugia at the Biosphere’s Accellerating Climate action in the Bow Valley event for an afternoon of presentations, sharing, connection and action.
Finding Refuge: Earth Love and Climate Grief
A Two-Day In-Person Workshop
Where: Wisdom House Retreat Centre in Litchfield, Connecticut
When: Friday, October 6-7, 2023
Hosted by: Hartford International University of Religion and Peace & The Spiritual Life Center
Learn more and register here.
You're Invited!
Refugia is partnering with Colin Smith of the Land Lover's Network to invite you to Seasonal, an informal potluck gathering to celebrate the season.
When: September 29
Where: Highfield Farm Greenhouse 1920 Highfield Crescent SE, Calgary, AB T2G 5M1
Please bring:
- A seasonal dish to share
- your own plate, cutlery and drinks
There will be a diverse community of ~30+ new and old friends. We would love for you to join us!
With Seasonal, we plan to host regular community events that mark the turning of the year and invite participants into gently guided practices of awareness and community building that reconnect us to land and the more than human community.
Schedule of the Evening
Happy Hour 5 - 6 pm
Dinner 6 - 7 pm
Dessert and Social 7 - 9 pm
Sunset/Moonrise 7:20/7:30 pm
If you can join us, please RSVP and to help us coordinate the quantity of mains vs sides vs desserts.
Kids are welcome! Please invite others if you would like :)
Please email Colin at colinrwsmith@gmail.com or Jodi at info@refugiaretreats.com with any questions.
The Work that Reconnects is a personal and systems activity based framework created by Joanna Macy that exists to bring us back into relationship with each other and the intelligence and self-healing powers of life on earth.
Who: Anyone who is interested in learning more about the Work that Reconnects and connecting with others about it. We hope for this group to be an opportunity to co-learn and co-facilitate on an ongoing basis.
What: A monthly meet up focused around the Work that Reconnects.
When & Where: Monday, April 15 at 7pm; Nosehill Library: 1530 Northmount Drive NW, Calgary, AB
Please RSVP by emailing info@refugiaretreats.com to let Jodi know that you'll be attending.
Join Jodi Lammiman of Refugia Retreats and Justin Ferko of Wild Spirit Pathways at the annual SDI conference.
Join the Community Development Learning Initiative IN PERSON for an evening of experiences and conversations on ways we’re practicing sustainability in our communities!
Join Jodi Lammiman, founder of Refugia Retreats and Alana-Dawn Eirikson, Sustainability Partnerships & Events Coordinator with the Office of Sustainability in a mindful and practice-based conversation about climate grief.
Join Refugia for a Monthly Meetup focused on practicing The Work that Reconnects. The Work that Reconnects is an open source process of experiential activities created by root teacher Joanna Macy that exists to bring us back into relationship with each other and the intelligence and self-healing powers of life on earth.
“Restless? Staying in Relationship with your life”
Whether it’s an itchiness in your body or a quiet whisper that builds to a buzz; all of us feel restless from time to time. The Oxford dictionary defines restlessness as “the inability to rest or relax as a result of anxiety or boredom.” What can we learn from our restless inclinations about how to know when we’re being invited to sit with our discomfort and when it’s time to move on?
“Restless? Staying in Relationship with your life”
Whether it’s an itchiness in your body or a quiet whisper that builds to a buzz; all of us feel restless from time to time. The Oxford dictionary defines restlessness as “the inability to rest or relax as a result of anxiety or boredom.” What can we learn from our restless inclinations about how to know when we’re being invited to sit with our discomfort and when it’s time to move on?
Postponed due to illness. This workshop will be re-scheduled in the new year. Please check back for a date then!
With wildfires, floods, extreme heat and the ongoing impacts of Covid19 continuing to rise, it can sometimes feel like the world as we know it is unravelling. How do we practice belonging in the midst of uncertainty? Can practices of collective mourning, joy, and belonging help to keep us grounded while the world unravels? If these are questions that feel resonant to you, please consider joining us as we explore them through gently guided group practices, and personal reflective time at this upcoming retreat.
Coming Home to Yourself is a 2-day retreat at a remote lakeside cabin on Treaty 6 land close to the town of Smoky Lake (2 hr drive from Edmonton). Our time together will include things like guided meditation, group discussion, somatic practices, and land-based exercises. Participants will be invited to slow down and reconnect with whatever is currently alive in them and in their experience. This could be grief around the state of the world or about a personal loss; it could be a sense of longing to connect more deeply with one's ancestors or one's body; or, it could be a pressing question about one's life and life choices.
“Divine Creativity & Flow” is an invitation to listen deeply within oneself and bring forth the creative, compassionate wisdom held there to engage with life and the world around us. By getting out of the thinking mind and listening to the songs deep inside the soul, we are able to meet with a wondrous part of the self we often left behind in childhood. This workshop weaves together guided meditations with playful, artistic, and embodied practices.
Eco-anxiety, eco-grief, the climate crisis, COVID stress - these are all things students are facing today. You will hear from students who are part of the Alberta Youth Leaders for Environmental Education (AYLEE) about their student polling results, their experiences with eco-anxiety, and how being part of AYLEE and engaging in projects in their schools helps them deal with eco-anxiety. Join Jodi Lammiman of Refugia Retreats to explore how schools and teachers can help students deal with these feelings and learn some strategies and tools for helping students deal with these feelings of grief and anxiety.
Private Group Retreat: What wisdom might a river share with us if we stopped to listen? Reflect on the wisdom of rivers and carve out space in this mini-retreat to see what surfaces from its depths.
Join the Alberta Council for Environmental Education’s webinar, Fostering Wellness in Environmental Education, on March 9 as they host Jodi Lammiman to explore how to ensure environmental education programs can help students and educators deal with feelings of eco-grief while creating strategies for self & community care.
Self and Community Care in the practice of Social Work
Lunch & Learn Insta with YYC Growers: Creating Space for Eco-Grief
Listen in to a conversation between Rod Olsen from YYC Growers and Jodi about finding ways to connect more deeply with our environment, recognize our agency and create spaces to learn from your grief. Wait to the end where Jodi leads us in a contemplative practice with a Wendell Berry poem. Watch here.
Join the Climate Reality Project this Wednesday for a panel-led discussion, which will reflect on the impact of eco-anxiety and burnout on young people within the climate movement and highlight some of the ways to foster a caring and compassionate movement while fighting the climate crisis. Watch here.
We are always in a process of both becoming and unbecoming. How do we embrace both the aspects of our lives that we find unbecoming or uncomfortable while also allowing ourselves to unlearn tightly held narratives, unravel beliefs about ourselves, and unbecome; releasing patterns that no longer serve us? Join Refugia online on January 22, 2022 from 9:30am-4:30pm, where we will explore these questions together.
This evening will honour the Equinox using Autumn as a guide to reflect on change, loss, and longing.
