EMBERS
A Grief and Love Retreat
Embers are not just ash
They are the glowing heart that remains
After what was
What no longer is
The warmth that endures
The spark waiting to be tended
Back into life
Embers are the love that cannot be lost
♥︎
Grief is not tidy or domesticated; it often comes in waves and is disguised as something else.
It doesn’t just show up with the loss of a loved one, it is layered into our human experience - with ourselves, others and the natural world.
We all carry our own unique threads….
❥ The grief of a loved one, lost - whether through death, separation or a feeling of abandonment when you needed connection
❥ The grief of a life having taken turns you weren’t expecting - loss of health, safety, and stability
❥ The grief we carry for the parts of ourselves that longed to be met, witnessed and welcomed but were not
❥ The grief for what we hoped for, the dreams and life unlived.
❥ The grief that is layered with loneliness - lack of authentic connection, village and wider community.
❥ The grief we’ve inherited, pain passed down through our lineage, asking to be held
❥ And the nameless grief, the one we feel but can not fully describe
Welcome to EMBERS
A Grief Retreat for those navigating loss, change, and the wild terrain of being human.
This is the retreat we wish we had when we were going through grief and loss.
When it felt like everything was falling apart and no one seemed to understand.
When the world expected us to move forward, but we could barely breathe.
Here, in this space, all threads of grief are welcome.
There is no “further along” and there is no doing it "right."
There is none too big and none too small.
You get to show up exactly as you are with whatever you are carrying. Whether you're grieving a person, a relationship, your health, a dream that died, who you used to be or something that has no name, you and your grief belong here.
♥︎
Grief has a way of changing everything.
Not just what we've lost, but who we are.
There is the loss itself… and then there is the loss of the person we were before it.
And at some point, the question comes:
Who am I now?
Part of you may long to feel relief, lighter. To feel like yourself again.
And another part may hold tightly to the pain because it feels like the thread that still connects you to who or what you lost.
This is the tension of grief.
Here's what we've learned through our own losses and years of walking with others through theirs:
Grief is not something to fix or move past.
It is something to tend.
When grief is given space - when it is felt, expressed, and witnessed - it begins to change form.
In many traditions, grief is seen as a living process, a movement through the terrain of the human heart: what we love, what we have lost, the unmet parts of our lives, what we have carried, and even the collective grief of the world we live in.
When we allow ourselves to enter this landscape from a place of companionship, something begins to shift. What feels dense can begin to soften. What feels stuck can begin to move.
Grief becomes a potent medicine, transforming not by taking the pain away, but by expanding our capacity to be with it.
And in this alchemical process, something becomes possible: perhaps a new way of being, of living, and of feeling whole again.
Grief is not a journey meant to be walked alone.
So many of us carry grief in isolation afraid of being too much, or sensing that others cannot meet us there.
Yet grief is meant to be held in community.
Where your honesty and truth are welcome.
Where you can be witnessed, exactly as you are.
This is where grief can be metabolized
and healing and transformation can begin to take root.
“Grief and love are sisters, woven together from the beginning. Their kinship reminds us that there is no love that does not contain loss and no loss that is not a reminder of the love we carry for what we once held close.”
- Francis Weller
EMBERS is a space where, through our grief,
love begins to breathe again.
Both grief and love are honoured together as interwoven parts of the same path. We make room for the darkness and gently tend to the spark that remains.
We consciously chose to begin EMBERS on Valentine’s Day, honouring that the deepest grief is born from the deepest love—and that in descending into our grief, we may discover a new well of love waiting there.
The location for this retreat, Toji Nature Retreat, was chosen intentionally because at its core, it holds grief and love with reverence.
Toji is rooted in principles of regeneration and relationship. A place that honours, through actions, a deep love and respect for the land, the local ecosystem and the wider world it is a part of.
Surrounded by jungle, ocean, and living ecosystems, it offers a kind of support that is difficult to put into words.
Said simply:
Toji Nature Retreat feels like HOME.
In grief, many of us feel drawn to nature, to places and rhythms that don't rush us, fix us, or ask us to be anything other than what we are.
A place to soften. To listen. To be held.
To remember that we can root and bloom again, even after the darkest seasons.
Here at Toji, the land is a profound resource for us to be able to lean into these tender places - it is holy ground. We are so grateful to be able to gather here…
During our time together, we will move gently through the landscapes of grief and love: through ritual, connective practices, writing, somatics, movement, and time in nature. There will be space to feel deeply, connect and plenty of space to rest.
Space to be witnessed, and space to be in solitude.
Space to reconnect with the quiet ember of aliveness still within you.
Hosted by Karen Schachter and Kylie Judge
This retreat is being hosted by Karen Schachter and Kylie Judge. Between us, we bring decades of walking alongside grief - through therapy, somatics, ritual, and the kind of deep transformational work that happens when you create brave spaces for people to fall apart and find themselves again.
We've been shaped by incredible teachers, ancient wisdom, and by the journeys of the many clients we’ve walked alongside. We have years facilitating groups and immersive retreat work, and more than anything, we come as women who have walked through the depths of our own grief
and learned how to be with what lives there.
We are not here to lead you out of your grief.
We are here to meet you within it.
Come…
Let yourself be held - by us, by the land, and by our circle - a village waiting to meet you exactly where you are.
Let grief move.
Let love remain.
Let something new begin to take shape.
EMBERS | February 14–20, 2027
Costa Rica, seven days and six nights of being held exactly as you are.
Limited spaces available.
Deposits are: $750 USD and can be sent via: E-transfer (Canadians), PayPal (friends and family), Wise or Venmo.
PayPal email: karenschachter11@gmail.com
Venmo: @Karen-Schachter
If you’d like to pay via e-transfer, please reach out to Kylie directly to confirm the conversion rate. If you’d like to send via Wise, please email Karen, and she will send you an invoice.