Retreat · Apr 30, 2027 – May 2, 2027
The Art of Aging ~ A Ritual Retreat
- When
- Fri, Apr 30, 2027 – Sun, May 2, 2027
- Format
- In-Person
- Location
- Loon Lake Retreat Centre, Maple Ridge, British Columbia, Canada
- Schedule
- Friday 3pm – Sunday 3pm
- Shared (3-4 guests)
- $975.00 USDLimited spots
- Semi-private (2 guests)
- $1100.00 USDStandard rooms
- Private room
- $1250.00 USD
Embrace the age you are
We spend an enormous amount of energy pretending it isn't happening. There's a whole industry built to help women look as though they haven't aged, and almost nothing built to help us grow older with intention ~ to meet the changing body, the shifting role, the strange moment of becoming invisible in a room, and find something other than dread waiting there.
Part of what we've lost is each other. Most of us move through life in a narrow band of people our own age, so the women a decade ahead become strangers rather than guides, and the women a decade behind never hear that any of this is survivable. We end up learning about aging from advertising instead of from one another.
So we gather across the full span of adult life, on purpose. Not to fix aging or outrun it, but to mark it ~ with ritual, with story, and with the relief of hearing something named out loud by someone who has already crossed it, and someone who hasn't yet. There is an art to growing older, and like every art, it's learned in company.
Who is this for?
Women of every age and stage are welcome, in one circle together. Some arrive in the middle of something physical ~ perimenopause, the end of fertility whether longed for or chosen or simply arrived, a diagnosis they haven't said out loud very often, a body changed by illness or injury or birth or plain time. Some come because a birthday is approaching that feels like it deserves more than a card.
For others it's less about the body than the shape of a life. The house has gone quiet, the last child has left, a career or a marriage has ended, or they're caring for a parent and catching sight of their own road ahead. And some come simply looking for women a little further along who can say what's coming ~ or find they have become that woman themselves, and want to do it well.
What to expect
A weekend with a rhythm rather than a schedule. Mornings begin gently, and the heart of each day is in circle ~ a circle spanning decades, where teaching, storytelling and ritual gather around the thresholds we cross without ceremony. Afternoons leave room to walk the lake, sit by the fire, sleep, or fall into conversation with someone you've just met. Evenings belong to the group: a shared table, and a chance to go deeper.
You'll mark a threshold that never got marked ~ a last period, a birthday, a diagnosis, an ending ~ and we'll help you design the ritual for it. In guided conversation with others you'll consider the ritual practice that might carry you into whatever comes next, and there'll be a ritual item to take home with you. And in between, you'll rest by the lake, eat well, and be looked after in a lodge that is ours alone for the weekend.
Where you'll stay
We gather at Koerner Lodge, part of UBC's Loon Lake Retreat Centre in Maple Ridge ~ an hour from Vancouver, set among tall second-growth forest on the shore of a quiet lake. No ferry, no long haul. You can be here by lunchtime.
Everything happens under one roof: sixteen private, hotel-style rooms, a fireside lobby, a dining room of our own, and a covered patio looking out over the water. We'll have the lodge to ourselves for the whole of our time together.
One thing worth saying plainly: Koerner Lodge is wheelchair accessible, with elevator service, accessible rooms and washrooms, and step-free access to everywhere we'll gather. If growing older means your body asks more of a building than it used to, this one can meet you.
What you'll eat
We offer fresh buffet-style and catered meals. We have our own private dining space, serving health-conscious and dietary-inclusive menus.
- Breakfast: Fresh fruit, cereal, yogurt, muffins, plus hot options like pancakes, waffles, eggs, bacon, and sausage.
- Lunch: Fresh salads, hamburgers, fish tacos, cookies, and dessert squares.
- Dinner: Freshly baked breads, seasonal vegetable and protein salads, hot entrees, and homemade desserts.
- Special Diets: Vegetarian, vegan, and other specific medical or lifestyle dietary needs are routinely accommodated with advance notice.
What's included
Koerner Lodge has en-suite rooms in three configurations, so you can choose what suits you: $975 shared, $1,100 semi-private, or $1,250 private. Every option includes:
- 2 nights en-suite accommodation at Koerner Lodge
- 6 meals: Friday dinner through Sunday lunch, plus snacks, teas and refreshments
- All circle work, teaching and ritual across the weekend
- A ritual item to carry home
- A beautiful journal to write and reflect in throughout the weekend
- All ritual materials and ceremony supplies
- Use of the lodge, forest trails, and a session in the cedar sauna (with optional swim in the lake!)
What's not included
- Travel to and from Loon Lake ~ though we'll help organize a rideshare
- Personal expenses and anything outside the retreat program
- Alcohol ~ this is a BYOB weekend
Itinerary
- Friday3:00pm
Arrival and settling in
Find your room, walk down to the water, and let the drive fall away. Tea and something warm waiting by the fire.
- FridayLate afternoon
Opening circle
We gather for the first time as one circle spanning decades. A simple ritual to open the weekend, and space to say out loud why you came.
- FridayEvening
Dinner and fireside
Our first meal together in our own dining room, then an unhurried evening by the fire. Stay up late or go to bed early ~ both are the right answer.
- SaturdayMorning
Waking gently
Breakfast whenever you surface, and an optional walk by the lake before we begin. No one is rushed into the day.
- SaturdayLate morning
The circle
Teaching and storytelling on the thresholds we cross without ceremony ~ the changing body, the shifting role, the strange moment of becoming invisible in a room. This is where the decades in the circle start to earn their keep.
- SaturdayAfternoon
Open hours
Lunch, then time that belongs to you. Walk the forest trails, take a turn in the cedar sauna, swim if you're brave, sleep, or fall into conversation with someone you met yesterday.
- SaturdayLate afternoon
Crafting the threshold
Together we build the ceremonial space for the evening ~ shaping the altar, preparing the objects, and making the threshold we'll each cross after dark. The room that holds us tonight is one we make with our own hands, so that when we witness each other, we do it somewhere we created together.
- SaturdayEvening
The threshold ceremony
The heart of the weekend. After dinner we mark the thresholds that were never marked ~ a last period, a birthday, a diagnosis, an ending. You'll have helped shape your own, and you'll be witnessed as you cross it. Afterwards we stay by the fire, in no hurry, for as long as it wants to last.
- SundayMorning
A slow start
Breakfast, and room to sit with whatever last night stirred. A last walk by the water if you want one.
- SundayLate morning
A ritual practice
In pairs and small groups, guided conversations about the ritual practice that might hold you once you're home ~ something small enough to survive an ordinary week, and sturdy enough to meet whatever comes next. You'll think yours through with women who heard your story this weekend, and help them think through theirs.
- Sunday12:30pm
Lunch
Our last meal together, unhurried, before we gather one final time.
- SundayAfternoon
Closing circle
We close with blessings offered across the generations ~ from the women ahead to the women behind, and back again. Time to say what the weekend gave you before you carry it out the door.
- Sunday3:00pm
Departure
Home by late afternoon, with a ritual practice worth keeping and a circle of women who know something about you now.
What participants say
Megan has a unique way of introducing ritual and ceremony in a spacious way, helping us have more meaningful connections and time for reflection of what matters most.
Facilitators
Megan Sheldon
Megan Sheldon (she/her) is a cultural mythologist, humanist celebrant, end-of-life doula, and co-founder of Be Ceremonial, the world's first guided ritual and ceremony platform. She is the author of Ritual Without Religion: A Humanist Guide to Creating Secular Ceremonies, and has spent years crafting ceremonies across the life cycle, with a focus on grief and the less visible moments of change and transition.