Courage to Create: The Heart that is Open and Ready for Anything

August 5 - 8, 2025

Date and Time Details: August 5-8, 9:30am-12:30pm

Location: Unicamp of Ontario

  • Day Pass – CAD $127.35
  • Program Only – CAD $86.40
  • Dave's Cottage A (ACCESSIBLE PRIORITY) – CAD $703.80
  • Dave's Cottage B (ACCESSIBLE PRIORITY) – CAD $615.60
  • Tom's Cottage A (ACCESSIBLE PRIORITY) – CAD $615.60
  • Tom's Cottage B (ACCESSIBLE PRIORITY) – CAD $615.60
  • Nellie's Cottage – CAD $792.00
  • Rosie's Cottage – CAD $719.55
  • Room in Rosie's Cottage – CAD $384.09
  • Cedar A - Private (includes Double) – CAD $417.15
  • Cedar B - Private (All Twin) – CAD $369.90
  • Maple A - Private (All Twin) – CAD $369.90
  • Maple B - Private (includes Double) – CAD $417.15
  • Pine A - Private (All Twin) – CAD $369.90
  • Pine B - Private (Includes Double) – CAD $417.15
  • Poplar A - Private (All Twin) – CAD $369.90
  • Poplar B - Private (Includes Double) – CAD $417.15
  • Oak A - Private (All Twin) – CAD $369.90
  • Oak B - Private (Includes Double) – CAD $417.15
  • Walnut A - Private (All Twin) – CAD $369.90
  • Walnut B - Private (Includes Double) – CAD $417.15
  • Bed in Shared Dorm – CAD $187.20
  • Hydro Site 0 – CAD $218.70
  • Hydro Site 6 – CAD $218.70
  • Regular Campsite 9 – CAD $196.65
  • Hydro Campsite 12 – CAD $218.70
  • Hydro Campsite 15 – CAD $218.70
  • Hydro Campsite 16 – CAD $218.70
  • Regular Campsite 19 – CAD $196.65
  • Regular Campsite 21 – CAD $196.65
  • Regular Campsite 22 – CAD $196.65
  • Site 23 Bunkie – CAD $356.40
  • Hydro Site 26 – CAD $218.70
  • Regular Campsite 27 – CAD $196.65
  • Regular Campsite 29 – CAD $196.65
  • Regular Campsite 43 – CAD $196.65
  • Regular Campsite 44 – CAD $196.65
  • Regular Campsite 47 – CAD $196.65
  • Fire-Free Site 64 – CAD $190.35
  • Fire-Free Site 65 – CAD $190.35
  • Fire-Free Site 66 – CAD $190.35
  • Regular Campsite 68 – CAD $196.65
  • Regular Campsite 69 – CAD $196.65
  • Fire-Free Site 70 – CAD $190.35
  • Seasonal Camper – CAD $86.40
  • Guest of Seasonal Camper – CAD $110.40
Register now
Register now

A 4-day morning retreat offered by Ellen Forrester and Michele Cadotte.

Now, perhaps more than ever, we are called upon to meet today’s challenges with an open heart and skills that allow us to navigate whatever comes our way in this changing world.

Our sessions will begin with some singing/chanting, mindful movement, meditation, poetry and reflective writing to awaken our hearts and connect with our deeper wisdom. From this place of greater awareness, you will then be invited to explore visual journaling.

This process of incorporating a visual element in journaling has been proven to nourish personal development through its emphasis on experiential practice that can provide deep pleasure, valuable solace, and clarity of self-awareness. It’s an invitation to move beyond the usually dominant thinking mode, opening the way to the gifts of visual, emotional, aesthetic, tactile senses that encourage free explorative abandon like a child in the sandbox! It’s the opposite of previously preconceived notions of perfection in a ‘final product’.

All activities are simple, accessible and suitable for everyone. Over the 4 mornings, we will explore the themes of opening to acceptance, creating space for gratitude, awakening to compassion and grounding in meaning and celebration. These qualities lay a foundation for the resiliency that allows us to be “ready for anything” and are skills we can build through wholehearted practice!

All supplies are provided except a sketchbook or unlined journal of minimal 65 lb weight to it. This would prevent possible buckling of the page, as well as breakdown of fiber when applying craft paints to the page. Feel free to email Ellen Forrester (ebforrester@gmail.com) or Michele Cadotte (mrcadotte@gmail.com) for more details.

Michele and Ellen are long time members of the Grand River Unitarian Congregation in Kitchener and hope you can join them in this playful and embodied practice of creation.

“The deep happiness of well-being comes from caring for yourself and loving the world. It comes from offering what’s good in you to others, giving your gifts to a world that needs it.” -Jack Kornfield

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