Living Legacy Women's Retreat
Define What Matters. Create Your Rituals. Live Your Legacy.
Brew Creek Lodge ~ Near Whistler, BC
May 10-12th 2024
This will be a life and death changing experience!
A Retreat Experience Like None Other
Join us for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to explore, define and craft your living legacy within a community of women who are contemplating their mortality.
During our time together, we’ll invite you to reflect on your values, share your stories, and create the legacy you want to leave behind. Together, we’ll explore the role of ritual and ceremony in life, death, and everything in between. Hosted by three end-of-life care providers, we’ll focus on what truly matters ~ the ripples we create while living and the stories we leave behind.
Who Should Join?
What To Expect?
Where Is It?
Your Hosts
This retreat is co-hosted by Megan Sheldon and Christa Ovenell , who have thoughtfully designed the entire experience. We will be joined by guest facilitators Sheryl MacKay and Karla Combres who will guide us in conversations surrounding storytelling, ritual and legacy keeping.
Megan Sheldon
A Cultural Mythologist, Secular Celebrant and End-of-Life Doula who designs ceremonies across the lifecycle
Christa Ovenell
A Funeral Director, End-of-Life Doula and Death Educator who offers workshops and events
Sheryl Mackay
A former CBC journalist and podcast host who's exploring the role of story at the end-of-life
Karla Combres
A Legacy Guide who offers workshops and ceremonies that embrace mortality as a tool for living fully.
An Overview
This retreat connects the head with the heart when considering the end-of-life. Together, we’ll explore the questions you need to be asking and the values that are guiding your decision-making. We’ll offer you a framework to draw from as you contemplate your own mortality and craft your living legacy. We’ll create a warm and supportive community space to approach these conversations with care and compassion.
Who Is This Meant For?
This retreat is designed for women and those who identify as women. Whether you’ve cared for a loved one at the end-of-life, are contemplating your own mortality, or want to get your affairs in order, this weekend is for you. This retreat will meet you where you’re at and offer you accessible and meaningful ways to step into the legacy you want to leave behind.
Investment
The cost for this all-inclusive 3-day retreat is $1250 CAD for a shared room or $1450 CAD for a private room. This includes two nights accommodation, six delicious vegetarian meals, workshops and events, ritual supplies, and time for self care. It does not include travel to and from Brew Creek Centre. We have a few needs-based scholarships available ~ see FAQs for more information
Accommodations
You can choose either a shared or private cabin. The shared rooms are loft style double suites that have one ground level bedroom with a king-sized bed and one bedroom upstairs with a double bed, with your own washroom. The private cabins offer either a king or queen bed and personal washroom. We also have a few private rooms in the main lodge for anyone with accessibility challenges.
Brew Creek holds many unique spaces, including the main lodge, west coast modern cottages, a meditation hut, a green house, and 20 acres of property for our exclusive use and enjoyment. The grounds will inspire you with meandering paths and natural creeks, all set in a secluded rainforest. We’ll host our workshops in The Gathering, a breathtaking space with a vaulted post-and-beam ceiling, hushed acoustics and a forest backdrop.
We’ll have a five-star caterer on site, harvesting vegetables from the local green house and preparing our vegetarian meals. We can accommodate most dietary needs with advanced notice. Meals include Friday dinner, Saturday all meals, and Sunday breakfast and lunch. There will be light snacks throughout the day. Non alcoholic drinks will be provided and alcohol can only be purchased on-site.
We ask that everyone arrive at 3pm on Friday, May 10th. We’ll begin our Opening Circle at 4pm, followed by dinner and a guided conversation on death & dying. We’ll spend Saturday in various workshops, including holistic advance care planning, legacy writing, and custom ceremony ideas. Sunday will focus creating your own legacy, followed by our closing ceremony, with plans to leave Brew Creek by 3pm.
Over the course of the weekend, there will be different workshops and events to choose from, offering guided conversations surrounding topics such as Weaving Your Story, Holistic Advance Care Planning, Planning Your Own Funeral, and Living Your Legacy. There will be time for reflection, nature therapy, creative expression, and community gatherings to connect with ourselves, each other and with nature.
FAQs
After our opening circle on Friday, we’ll host a Fireside Chat focused on shifting the narrative surrounding death, dying and grief. Saturday includes several workshops to choose from, including Holistic Advance Care Planning, Legacy Letter Writing, Planning Your Own Funeral, and a guided ritual walk in nature to contemplate your mortality. That evening, we will host a panel of end-of-life care providers sharing stories, knowledge and the opportunity to ask questions. Sunday will be more creative, crafting personal legacies and sharing them as a community. We’ll finish with our closing ceremony before wrapping up at 3pm.
Yes! Be sure to note the fact you’re planning to attend with a friend and we will do everything we can to place you in the same room. Please note that rooms are available on a first-come basis and may fill up.
We made the collective decision to frame this as a women’s retreat to help with feelings of safety, transparency and shared lived experiences. We connect with all of our applicants before approving registration to ensure that everyone joining is aware of the topics and circumstances of the weekend. We also suggest you don’t attend if you are in a state of acute grief, meaning you’ve lost a loved one in the last 3-6 months or have recently received a terminal diagnosis. We are not registered counsellors and will not be offering counselling services.
To make our retreat more accessible, we offer two partial scholarships with a priority for marginalized communities, including BIPOC, LGBTQ2S and people with disabilities. We will reach out to those who apply for a scholarship during our application process to share more about your circumstances. We also offer small subsidies for anyone facing financial barriers.
Absolutely! As part of our sliding scale tuition model, we welcome those who are able to offer an extra scholarship to a participant in need. Please reach out if you have the means to add to our scholarship program.
Our retreat facilities are not set up as a conventional hotel, so you cannot stay at Brew Creek Centre longer than our allotted timing. However, we would be delighted to suggest options for extending your vacation in Beautiful British Columbia! BC.
