Wildfire Women’s Retreat

Weaving Sacred Space

We invite you to join a small group of women* for three days in a beautiful, intimate setting on communally stewarded land.  Amongst wild-flowered meadows, rocky outcroppings, and mixed evergreen and aspen forest, we’ll work through the spiral of the Work that Reconnects to come into deeper relationship with ourselves, co-retreatants, and the natural world. 

DATES:  

July 26th – July 28th, 2024

Register Now

OVERVIEW

Just as the aspen had turned golden in the autumn of 2020, the Lefthand wildfire danced through the beautiful piece of earth we steward.  Her exact choreography is unknown, but when she was finished, she left little remaining of the stage.  In her wake was what felt like the charred landscape of the moon.  We were devastated.

The natural process of healing and growth that happens in an ecosystem post fire is nothing short of a spiritual teaching.  In the initial phase, the fire offered us a pause, a long exhale, a potent moment of grief and reflection.  It initiated intentional conversations, slow wanderings and deep listening.  All this happened while microorganisms, fungal networks, and awakening seeds were hard at work beneath the winter snow.  When spring emerged, and in the seasons that followed, she gifted us with the honor of witnessing the slow and steady rebirth of this land. She is the storyteller of regeneration and interconnection, offering an alternative to our current story of separation.  As she skillfully reweaves her web, an opportunity emerges to question our species’ trend towards heightened consumerism, rapid urbanization, habitat destruction and all the other components of ecological unraveling that we contribute to.  In witnessing the earth’s natural process of healing we were guided along the journey of the spiral.


It is to this thriving land, in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, that we invite you to gather in a community of like-minded women* to be part of the story of reweaving and resilience that she offers us. Together we will sit and move in witness to the dance of our own wildfire and its transformative potential.  What is our role in the collective story?  What needs tending?  What seeds need watering?  What needs to be let go?  Let us come into a circle of deep connection, as vital members of our ecosystem, embracing and trusting the ever-changing landscape of our internal and external worlds.

*Any person who is female-identifying is welcome

PEDAGOGY, METHODS, AND OPPORTUNITIES

Joanna Macy’s Work that Reconnects

  1. Coming from gratitude
  2. Feeling our pain for the world
  3. Seeing with new eyes
  4. Going forth

  • Earth centered ceremony and celebration
  • Yoga practices including asana, pranayama and yoga nidra
  • Guided nature and self compassion meditations
  • Intentional activities and conversations that invite deeper reflection and opportunities to be witnessed
  • Strolls, wanders, and sit spots

GUIDING QUESTIONS:

  • How do we slow down and find nourishment in an increasingly fast-paced society?
  • What practices can we cultivate to be in our wellness and care for ourselves?
  • How do we continue to deepen our relationship with the more-than-human world? 
  • How do we create meaningful ceremony and ritual in our lives to continue feeling joy and connection?
  • How do we feel our grief for the ecological unraveling of our earth and simultaneously find our potential offerings, our deep reserves?
  • How do we weave emotional resiliency as a reliable state into our lives? 
  • How do we expand our capacity to sit and be with more? To attend to the needs of our local and global communities?

READINGS & INSPIRATION:

  • Joanna Macy – Active Hope & A Wild Love for the World
  • Bayo Akomolafe – Slower Urgency
  • Pema Chödrön –When Things Fall Apart
  • Charles Eisenstein – The More Beautiful World Our Heart Knows is Possible
  • Francis Weller – The Wild Edge of Sorrow
  • Robin Wall Kimmerer – Braiding Sweet Grass 
  • Paulina Boss – Ambiguous loss

DETAILS:

Cost: $350 early bird by June 1st/ $400 after June 1st – includes lunch and facilitation

Please do not hesitate to reach out if you are interested but the cost is out of reach. This is essential, community, and earth-centered work, and cost should not be a barrier to access.

Location: The Wildfire Women’s retreat takes place on a piece of privately owned land, historically inhabited by the Southern Arapaho up Lefthand Canyon, about 30 minutes outside of Boulder. Please find more details here.

Program Start & End: The retreat begins on Friday, July 26th at 9am and ends after lunch on Sunday, July 28th. We will be gathering during the day from 9am-5pm on Friday and Saturday and 9am-2pm on Sunday. Retreatants have the option to camp on the land with the facilitators or come up during the day and sleep at a different location. If you choose the latter option, we kindly ask that you return to the land by 8:45am so we can start on time. 

For local retreatants, we ask that you drive and park onsite. For those who aren’t arriving in their own cars, please let us know if you need a ride.

Accommodations: Our retreat offerings will end at 5pm on Friday and Saturday. You are welcome to stay on the land on one of our camping sites. If you choose to do so, please bring your own camping set-up including a tent, sleeping bag, pad and whatever you may need to be comfortable. There is a basic outdoor shower and 2 composting toilets. There is no running water on the property, however potable water will be available. Rather than a camping fee, we welcome any donation that is within your means.

Food: Vegetarian lunch, healthy snacks, and tea will be provided every day. Participants who choose to camp on the land need to prepare their own breakfast and dinner. Please bring enough ice for your cooler. If you have specific dietary needs please let us know during the registration process.

Physical Activity Level: The retreat is designed for participants who can engage at a moderate activity level. We’ll be at an altitude of approximately 8,500 feet, which can feel physically demanding. We will explore the land and surrounding National Forest on foot as well as engage in a multi-level, daily yoga practice.

Preparation: After registration, Shannon or Eva will schedule a 1:1 call with you. This time will be to discuss important details regarding logistics, answer any questions you have, and offer space for you to name your hopes and intentions for the retreat.

YOUR GUIDES

Eva Jahn, MA LPC 

Eva is a licensed psychotherapist and facilitator with a multi-cultural, multilingual background. After years of working as a social worker and educator in different parts of the world, Eva focused her psychotherapy practice to work predominantly with women in states of trauma; integrating nature awareness, mindfulness, and trauma-informed practices to support and empower their healing process. Her own complex feelings about the immenseness of the collapse of this planet has sparked a passion to bring therapeutic support for climate-related distress such as anxiety and grief into her practice and wider spaces. She runs climate resiliency programs and provides lectures and workshops to her community inspired by Joanna Macy’s Work that Reconnects and her own studies in climate psychology. Eva believes that developing a consistent nature connection practice with elements of somatic awareness — integrating a sense of the sacredness of the land and her inhabitants — can foster reciprocity with the more-than-human world essential to our personal and collective well-being.

Shannon Harriman, M.S. Ed, RYT 500

Shannon is a homeschooling mother, a lover of animals, an explorer of wild places, a yogini and a Buddhist practitioner.   Most importantly, she is a perpetual student, constantly curious and awed by the vast mystery of both the external and internal realms; a naturalist exploring the intersection of ecology and spirituality. Professionally trained as a teacher,  she has been a cross-cultural guide for more than 2 decades, facilitating international, experiential programs for students and offering trainings to organizations and schools, which incorporate tools from Joanna Macy’s Work That Reconnects.  Most recently her work is that of a nature connection mentor, running summer programs for children that foster a reverent and reciprocal relationship with the natural world and introduce them to a foundational contemplative practice.  Shannon believes deeply in the importance of pausing regularly, noticing our breath, and honoring this precious human life and the earth that sustains us all.  She is actively attempting to live a life with her partner and children that aligns with the Great Turning, a worldview that fosters connection and regeneration.

Register Now

Upon reviewing your application, we will be be in touch to schedule a 1:1 intention setting call with Eva or Shannon

 Are you considering this retreat but have some questions? Please don’t hesitate in reaching out: eva@evajahn.com