Grief Retreat with Laura Green and Julia Francis

The Big Idea:

Humans are part of nature. 

All things in nature are connected, all things in nature are medicine. 

That must include us. All parts of us, including our grief. 

There's something we're meant to help heal, there's something that's meant to help us heal.

But, how do we ask? How do we offer?

We've largely fallen out of conversation with the non-human world - recently. 

Deep down, though - and not too deep - we know how to be in conversation with the whole, big everything. 

We can remember. We can relearn.

So - let's try.

How it will work

We will spend the weekend in conversation with the non-human world; asking what medicine we can offer and what we can take. 

Except for grief spills and singing we will keep conversation with humans to a bare minimum. 

We'll use guided sound work, yoga practice and meditation to let spoken language shift away from to center of our attention.

We'll listen deeply, and talk sincerely with the world around us, and believe what we hear and learn.

Itinerary

Friday

2:00 - Arrive and settle.

2:30-3:45 - Gather in Pavilion, orient, Julia will help us open a circle with sound in which we'll offer a grief spill.

3:45 - 4:45 - Walk in the woods.

Spill our grief - in words or sounds or silently - privately, to the woods, as offerings. Ask what medicine you can hold and carry.

4:45 - 5:15 - Back home, settle, quiet time.

We'll offer journal and meditation prompts you can use, or find your way privately to what feels right.

5:30 - 6:30 - Song healing. We'll use thing time to pool the offerings from the woods. Julia will guide us to a song that offers thanks, integrates the conversations we've begun, our individual and communal grief and the medicine we hope to give and absorb.

6:30-7:00 - Quiet free time.

7:00-8:00 - Dinner (catered meal served in the Pavilion).

8:15 - 9:30 - Restorative yoga and sound bath.

Sleep

Saturday

Wake up and make/eat breakfast in your nest.

8:30-9:30 - Yoga and guided meditation/vocalizing/toning in the Pavilion.

10:30-12:30 - Half the group

• Walk to the ocean, bring her offerings including your grief.
• Settle in, spill out your grief. Sing or moan or hum or speak. Go on and on for 1 hour even if you feel done before - just continue.
• You can stop to sleep - if sleeping takes you, then start again.
• Walk back to your nest.

Julia or Laura will accompany folks to the ocean to shepherd you while you spill and protect you from passersby. We will also provide shelters from the rain. 

Other half of group

• 1 hour to wander the grounds, art gallery, tea trailer, thrift store, meditation garden/hut. You can also schedule one-on-one healing sessions in the wellness trailor.  

12:30-1:30  - Make/eat lunch in your nest or wherever you like.

1:45- 3:45 - Ocean journey or private wandering wandering/exploring.

4:45-6:45 - Nap, meditate, journal, rest.

6:45-8:00  - Group soup dinner in the African Queen trailer. 

8:30-10:00 - Grief spill, sound bath and (optional) massage exchange.

Sleep

Sunday

Wake up and make/eat breakfast in your nest.

8:30-9:30 - Quiet morning yoga and meditation.

10:00-11:00 - Walk and talk to the woods.

Leave your community conjured medicine where it is meant to rest.

11-11:30 - Pack up your nest.

11:30-12:45 in the Pavilion - Julia will help us sing the circle closed.

Eat our picnic lunches together and reflect/share experience.

1:00 - Check out and farewell

After the weekend

Carry your medicine object. As the non-human world you land in who wants it. Listen carefully. Leave it where it needs to rest.

Ask what new medicine you can pick up.

About Us

Laura Green

Laura is a massage therapist, Grief House Tender, friend and partner, daughter, sister, niece and many times a cousin. She feels many things, knows very little, is good at asking questions and better and better at not having answers. You can listen to her talk for many house on the podcast she makes with her friend Sascha and hardly at tall if you meet her in person at a Grief House event like this one. She is deeply introverted, but really quite friends. 

Julia Francis

Julia Francis, it’s safe to say, will never be referred to as a shrinking violet. The Seattle singer-songwriter and sound healing practitioner proudly wears her heart – and whole dang soul – on her crushed-velvet sleeve. With a voice that KBCS describes as “howling, blistering… like Bessie Smith and Sister Rosetta Tharpe colliding with Slick, Joplin and Tedeschi”, Francis will pull you out of your daily reverie and into her frequency of expanded possibility at the first note."

More Details

Accommodations

We have reserves Every vintage trailer has heat, electricity, kitchenette, full bathroom, bedding, towels, basic dish and utensils for cooking, and charming decor.

Food

• Fri and Sat dinners are provided
• Bring your own breakfast and lunch for Sat and Sun (or buy from the resort market that stocks food for every meal and every diet)

Included Amenities

• Guided yoga and meditation
• Sound baths
• Finnish sauna and steam room
• Firepits
• Meditation garden and hut
• Open access to:
  • Art gallery trailer
  • Tea trailer
  • Thrift store trailer
  • Movie bus
• Additional costs: private massage or sound healing session
• Paved Discovery trail runs along the beach -  8+ mile long, beautifully paved path through grassy dunes and forest pines. Explore ocean views, public art, whale bones, and more.
• The beach - Coined “The Longest Beach”, miles of driftwood, coastal dunes, surf spots, and epic sunsets.

Payment details

• Pay in full to reserve your spot
• We're not able to offer refunds except in cases of emergency.

Pricing options:

4 prices to choose from

Cozy trailer (sleeps 1-2)

$775 per person, single occupancy

$612 per person, double occupency

Roomier trailer (sleeps 2-3)

$629 per person, single occupancy

$808 per person, double occupancy

We hope to offer at least on scholarship spot. In an effort to make this possible we will incude the oppertunity to donate as you situation allows.