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Community Grief RetreatHonoring our grief and gratitude with rituals of renewal
Fri, Nov 9th at 10 a.m. - Sat, Oct 10th at 7:00 p.m.
Location: Fallen Alders Community Hall (Royston, Comox Valley, Vancouver Island, BC)
***Description***
In many traditional cultures, grief rituals are considered the “glue” of connection that holds the community together. They offer us one of the most powerful means for reweaving our connection and belonging to ourselves, each other, and all our relations. We were never meant to carry this all alone.
We hope you can join us as we honor the sacredness of our grief and gratitude through talking circles, singing, poetry, movement, practice in sacred listening, ceremony, sharing food, and some quiet time in nature. The heart of our time together will include a sacred ritual inspired by the work of Sobonfu Some and Malidoma Some.
This retreat is also inspired by Francis Weller’s Five Gates of Grief, which help us to welcome in all forms of grief we may be carrying, including: Everything we love we will lose, The places within us that have not known love, The sorrows of the world (e.g. environmental, racial, political, cultural), The loss of village and belonging, Intergenerational or ancestral grief, and The harms we have caused.
The spiritual framework we use includes time-honored and earth-based modalities, utilizing the movement of drumming and song, the belief that the natural world is a rich place of interconnection with all our relations, and the importance of working with the unseen realms, including our ancestors.
We invite you to lean in with us as we remember how to grieve in community. There is no grief too big or too small to be worthy of welcome here.
***Registration***
To register, please visit: https://northwestgrieftending.com/comox-valley-grief-retreat-2024/
Northwest Grief Tending fundshifts 10% of all proceeds from grief rituals towards supporting reparations for People of the Global Majority (BIPOC folks). We donate these funds based on where it is most needed at the time of our grief retreat, which typically includes the Dagara community – through the Sonder Project or Cultural Preservation Fundraiser – and/or the local native tribe(s) whose land we do this work on.
20 participant minimum and 34 participant max
Facilitators:
Siena Tenisci (MA, LMHCA) is a therapist, community organizer, and founder of Northwest Grief Tending. She is a descendant of Abruzzese and Celtic peoples - lineages where keening women once held dedicated and respected roles in society as vocal rituals who midwifed collective grief within their communities. Siena has been facilitating grief rituals for over a decade and has been inspired by the work of many teachers and mentors, including Sobonfu & Malidoma Some, Joanna Macy, Therese Charvet, Laurence Cole, Francis Weller, and Vince Horan. She completed her Masters in Counseling at Antioch University in Seattle and is committed to a lifelong practice of dismantling systemic and internalized oppression.
Jordan Lyon is a chef, grief tender, writer and facilitator. His passions and work guide him towards cultivating community through all the ways he creates, weaves, and lives. Primarily through food—a love language of his that nourishes community doing deep work together; through ritual—co-creating emergent ceremonies that reconnect us with the sacred, Mother Nature, and all the cycles of life; and lastly through story—weaving together mythic threads and tapestries that help us remember what we’ve forgotten and reimagine what is possible ahead. He resides on the land of Sacred Groves, a small intentional community on Bainbridge Island in the Salish Sea.
Questions? Please email Aidan at [email protected]
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Comox Valley, 1410 10th St E, Courtenay, BC V9N, Canada,Courtenay, British Columbia
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