Awakening Our Hearts Communal Grief Retreat
Join us for: Awakening Our Hearts Communal Retreat October 10 & 11, 2026
We carry grief of all kinds. Joy and sorrow are a main staple of our daily life, and we are not meant to carry our suffering in isolation. Come join us for a time of cathartic release and deep connection, to end our cultural norm of isolation.
The ancient wisdom of this grief tending lineage teaches us that our culture is sick not because we grieve too much, but because we don’t grieve enough. We aren’t given permission to fully grieve.
When grief is not processed, it often gets passed down through the generations and can come out in harmful ways. But we can choose differently. We can reclaim our natural ability to heal alongside one another.
Grief is not something to get over but to be embraced and cherished for the love that it is. It is ok to hurt, we just need each other to collectively hold that hurt and support one another to carry what we cannot carry alone. Sometimes we can get stagnate and drown in our grief because we aren’t given a way and a community to allow it to move through us.
This medicine helps us regain our interconnectivity. This being human is no easy task and part of our challenge in life is learning to be more human. To celebrate the full range of our human experience and that means our deep sorrow. But touching on that agony is often scary and why we need companions to journey with us through the tunnel of grief until we come out the other side.
The ritual includes talking circles, singing and drumming, poetry, movement, practice in sacred listening, witnessing and being witnessed, ceremony, sharing food and quiet time. The heart of the retreat is a ceremony inspired by Sobonfu Somé and shared by Harmony Woods Grief Tenders.
The work is also inspired by the Five Gates of Grief from Francis Weller:
- Everything we love we will lose,
- the places that have not known love,
- the sorrows of the world,
- the things we cannot even name that we ache for, and
- intergenerational or ancestral grief.
$350 for the weekend (food not included). We try to keep the cost of these rituals as low as possible, so if you are able, please consider making a donation towards a scholarship fund to support someone else to attend. Thank you!
Early Bird Registration before Aug 26, 2026 – $299! https://square.link/u/SE4Rgm80
Bring a friend and you each get $33 discount off your registration! https://square.link/u/9CIbyGWl
After August 26, 2206:
Or you can Venmo your payment to @harmonywoods for $299 for Early Bird Registration or $317 for the Bring a Friend Discount, or $350 for regular registration or send a check and we will reserve your spot!
*If you are registering before August 26 and bringing a friend who’s never been to a Harmony Woods Grief Retreat please Venmo $266 and we will reserve your spot. Please make sure to include your friend’s name who is registering as well. Register on the same day to receive the discount.
Payment plans, scholarships, and work trades are available upon request. Email Harmonywoodsretreats@gmail.com or text 509-866-6139 to request one. We are dedicated to making this accessible to everyone so please don’t hesitate to ask! No one will be turned away.