Registration Application here.
When: Friday, May 3 - Sunday, May 5, 2024
Where: Barrier Lake Station
Cost: Sliding scale between $350-$550 (more information on this below)
..”in order to create a world that works for more people, for more life, we have to collaborate on the process of dreaming and visioning and implementing that world. We have to recognize that a multitude of realities have, do and will exist.” (adrienne maree brown in her book: Emergent Strategy)
Imagining the future births the future. We live in what often feel like impossible times. Times where imagination, creativity, and joy get overshadowed by the tasks of simply surviving. Times of genocide, fire, drought, and cascading climatic events. Grief, whether acknowledged or not, lurks beneath the surface of our daily lives. It appears in resigned sighs, an awkward joke, social media scrolls, numbness… Many of us fear our grief. We worry that acknowledging grief will cause it to erupt or overwhelm us. But what if we allowed our emotions to re-connect us with what matters to us? What if collectively acknowledging the loss and heartbreak of the effects of climate change helps us to find our way together as we move through grief into love and action? What if wild tending our grief opens us up to imagine a future different from the one we seem to be headed towards?
If these questions feel resonant to you, please consider joining us at Wild Tending The Future, a weekend retreat at the Barrier Lake Field Station in Kananaskis. Together, we will explore how we can wild tend personal and collective grief, joy and imagination while enduring in times of trouble. This weekend will intentionally create space and time to foster personal openings through individual and collective practices such as guided meditation, group discussion, ritual, somatic & land-based practices, and personal reflection. During this time, we will question and practice, what it means to grieve, love and belong ––to ourselves, to each other, and to the land around us.
Meals & Food: All meals and snacks are provided. Everything will be vegetarian. Participants can share any allergies upon registration.
In addition to scheduled group activities, there will be personal time for participants to rest, journal, explore the area, or do whatever else calls to them. Retreat, is an intentional coming away from daily activities, to slow down and notice what might be surfacing from within when we take the time to rest, reflect and step outside of the normal auspices of capitalism. As such, this weekend will be punctuated with times to rest, play and reflect throughout the weekend.
Registrations: After filling this application out. Participants will be emailed and invited to register and pay via e-transfer. Registration is first come first serve, with a limit of 12 participants. The options for fees are as follows:
$350 Supported - This payment level is below the cost of the weekend retreat. We are happy to offer it to anyone who would like to attend the retreat but cannot afford the true cost of the weekend.
$450 Cost of the weekend - This level reflects the true cost of the retreat including food, accommodations, program materials and an honorarium for the retreat facilitators.
$550 Pay it forward - This level is above the true cost of the retreat and helps cover the balance for people who need a subsidized rate.
We trust that people will pay what they can afford. If you would like to attend and need further financial assistance, send us an email and we can discuss other options. After applying, you will receive an email from us inviting you to register by paying through e-transfer. Once you have paid, you will receive an email receipt and further information about the retreat.
Rest is part of retreat: Retreat is an intentional coming away from daily activities, to slow down and notice what might be surfacing from within when we take the time to rest, reflect and step outside of the normal auspices of capitalism. In addition to scheduled group activities, there will be personal time for participants to rest, journal, explore the area, or do whatever else calls to them.
Registration Application here.
COVID & Illness policy: We take the health and safety of our participants seriously and will assess covid precautions closer to the retreat dates based on the most up to date information. Depending on the level of risk and the needs of participants, precautions may include:
Asking people to stay home if they are sick
Asking people to rapid test the day of the retreat, or at the retreat centre
Masking when indoors
Trying to be outside when possible
Asking people to leave or isolate if they develop symptoms over the weekend.
Questions? Email Jodi at: info@refugiaretreats.com
Cancellations:
If you should need to cancel for any reason, you can do so up to a week before the event for a full refund, and up to 48 hours before the event for a 50% refund. Unfortunately, many of our costs for this retreat are fixed and we are unable to refund folks who cancel within 48 hours. We ask that if you develop symptoms for anything within 48 hours of the retreat, you cancel. Depending on circumstances (for example, if there is a waitlist and we can fill your spot) there may be some flexibility in the policy - please reach out to us to chat further about this.
Facilitators:
Lauren (she/her) is a facilitator, educator, lifelong learner and community development practitioner. Lauren has been working in the environmental and social non-profit sector in Calgary since 2007. She has a Bachelor's degree in International Development Studies and a Masters in Transpersonal Ecopsychology from Naropa University. Lauren is passionate about community development and feels that being better connected in our geographic regions is a critical strategy for climate change adaptation. Included in those community connections are our beyond-human relations- the plants, trees, birds, fish, mammals, rocks, elements and all our relations. Biophilia, the yearning to connect with all forms of life, runs in Lauren’s blood and has since childhood. Living in Calgary, or Moh’kinsstis, as was the first name of this land, near the Bow River and close to the Rocky Mountains has offered generous gifts of learning and growing in expanding the field of those connections and for that, Lauren holds abundant gratitude.
Jodi (she/her) is an eco-spiritual director, community educator, artist and library worker who lives in Mohkinstsis (Calgary, AB, Canada) on Treaty 7 territory. After living at a wilderness retreat centre for four years, Jodi founded Refugia, an initiative that explores the confluence of social & environmental justice, and spirituality. Through retreat, facilitation and eco-spiritual direction, Refugia recognizes nature as guide, supports people living with ecological & climate grief and fosters holistic wellness practices. Jodi has companioned people as a spiritual director over 9 years. She is passionate about accompanying people through paradox and grief while coming into belonging with their own bodies, and reconnecting with human and more than human communities through ritual, reflection, and embodied practices.
Registration Application here.