September 26, 2027 10am-5pm
Grief and Gratitude 2027
200 Britton Drive ,Chapel Hill, NC 27516
Join meditation teacher Joanna John for the third annual Grief and Gratitude Meditation Retreat.
The autumn equinox is an auspicious time to gather to reflect on how we relate to grief as an essential part of the human experience.
Grieving is considered a sacred and communal process, and what grief asks of us is too profound to do alone. By coming together as a community, and naming universal forms of grief, we are better able to access our own grief and come to see that our sorrow, while unique in some way, is not a solitary experience — it is The Grief. It is what it is to be a human. This retreat is a step toward reclaiming the sacred act of grieving.
Through mindfulness meditation, ritual, and community, participants will be offered an anchor, and a return to the perspective of our core self, as we navigate the joys and sorrows of this miraculous life. As a sangha, we just might come to find that our ability to grieve is directly connected to our capacity to love. Grief and gratitude are not opposites, but deeply intertwined.
This retreat will be guided by the Insight Meditation tradition and will include.
Guided meditations
Rituals
Signature herbal tea
Movement practice
A catered lunch
Small and large group discussions
Periods of time for painting, journaling, or walking meditation
*To honor and preserve the introspective nature of this day, the majority of the retreat will be held in silence, with intentional openings for small and large group sharing.
**This retreat will be capped at 22 participants..
***This is a mindfulness meditation retreat designed to support grief, rather than a traditional grief retreat.
****This event, and all of Joanna’s offerings, are inclusive and affirming of people of all gender identities and expressions, sexual orientations, races, ethnicities, cultures, religions, abilities, and backgrounds. As a sangha, we seek to recognize and name the impacts of racism, xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, and other forms of oppression, and to engage in the ongoing practice of antiracism, compassion, understanding, and repair.
Tentative Retreat Flow
10:00–11:15— Welcome, logistics, grounding meditation, check-in
11:15-11:50— Dharma Talk/Grief Framework and Grief Ritual
11:50-12:05— Break
12:05-12:35— Guided Meditation
12:35-12:45 – Question + Response
12:45-2:15— Catered Lunch + Rest (art, journal prompts, walking meditation, independent time)
2:15-2:45— Guided Meditation
2:45-3:15 — Discussion
3:15-3:30 — Break
3:30-4:30 —Yoga/Movement
4:30–5:00 — Closing activities
Your Guide
Joanna John (she/her), Durham, NC
Joanna completed mindfulness meditation teacher training in 2023 through the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program (MMTCP), a two-year training founded by Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach. She then pursued an additional year of study with Stan Eisenstein and Cynthia Wilcox, PhD, in Guided Embodied Inquiry for Individuals (GEII).
GEII is a one-on-one modality that supports psychological and spiritual healing through mindfulness meditation, drawing on complementary frameworks including Internal Family Systems, Buddhist philosophy, spiritual reparenting, and somatic approaches to emotional processing.
Joanna continues her study of GEII with Stan and a dedicated community of meditation teachers.
Joanna facilitates seasonal meditation retreats in the Triangle area and leads ongoing cyclical sanghas (meditation communities in the Buddhist tradition). As both a teacher and fellow practitioner, she is committed to her own continued growth and engages in ongoing professional development and personal practice. She regularly makes space for contemplative practice and writing, which are central to her life and work. Joanna practices engaged spirituality, a term inspired by Thich Nhat Hanh, which refers to the active engagement of the heart and mindful awareness in service of the greater collective good.
Joanna is from Durham, North Carolina, where she currently lives with her husband, two sons, and their black lab mix, Tallulah. Outside of her teaching work, she is a mother. Motherhood deeply informs and challenges her understanding of care, attunement, and compassionate presence.
Grief and Gratitude Meditation Retreat 2025 and 2026
“My grief and my gratitude, my impermanence and my timelessness, dance side by side like good friends who would be incomplete without the other. They create the raw and miraculous truth of what it means to be a human.” - Joanna John
