Here in California I began the new year at the Franciscan center of San Damiano with some forty colleagues at a week-long facilitators retreat. Among the many ways I miss Fran, certainly one is as a thinking partner. He had such a lovely, unhurried way of focusing his attention on the matter at hand, there hardly seemed anything I couldn't sort out, sift through, and clarify, when we looked at it together. So a year ago, After he died, I told Anne I wanted to sit down with some colleagues in the Work That Reconnects to look at where it seemed to be going.
One of the concerns I brought relates to wide-spread borrowing of its interactive exercises to use them in other settings. A number of them are often taken separately and inserted into other programs, classes and curricula as an enlivening change from the usual lecture format. Desiring to share the Work, I have, from the very begining, offered it as a "give-away," establishing no conditions or credentials for its use; but recently I worry. Is the Work That Reconnects in danger of being dismembered or trivialized when its exercises are taken out of context and often conducted in an abbreviated fashion? Do I or we, who know the depth and full range of the Work, have a responsibility to protect its integrity? And how?
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The central purpose of the Work that Reconnects is to help people uncover and experience their innate connections with each other and with the systemic, self-healing powers in the web of life, so that they may be enlivened and motivated to play their part in creating a sustainable civilization. In order to do this, we pursue these contributing goals:
- to provide people the opportunity to experience and share with others their innermost responses to the present condition of our world
- to reframe their pain for the world as evidence of their interconnectedness in the web of life, and hence of their power to take part in its healing
- to provide people with concepts--from systems science, deep ecology, or spiritual traditions--which illumine this power, along with exercises which reveal its play in their own lives
- to provide methods by which people can experience their interdependence with, their responsibility
- to, and the inspiration they can draw from past and future generations, and other life-forms
- to enable people to embrace the Great Turning as a challenge which they are fully capable of meeting in a variety of ways, and as a privilege in which they can take joy
- to bring people into mutual support and collaboration in working for the world
WTR and Youth
The Work That Reconnects has been used with children and young people from the beginning. They have benefited greatly from the approach and practices. It is high time that we devote a page to the specific methods best suited to youth, and to people's experiences guiding the work. When we look at the goals of the work and the theoretical foundations as laid out on pages 58 and 59 of Coming Back to Life, we see that these are appropriate and easily accessible to children.
We will use this page in several ways:
- share specific exercises designed/adapted for youth that serve to "reconnect" with all life and that can fit into the spiral of the WTR;
- share ideas, questions and advice related to working with youth and
- share contact information for the people who are offering these programs/ experiences.
We Want to Hear From You! If you have exercises or adaptions for youth that you’d like to share for posting on the webpage, please send a detailed description to:
kathleenrude [at] mac.com
Please include: a step-by-step description of the exercise; age of children; number of participants; venue; time allotted; feedback on experience.
"The prospect of having this book as a resource fills me with gladness! This timely collection of stories, poems, and songs will be an immediate inspiration and support to group facilitators, as well as to the broader public. Carrying the spirit and the message of the Great Turning, the book will testify to the creativity generated by the Work That Reconnects.” ~Joanna Macy
Join us in creating an exciting project that emerged from The Work That Reconnects facilitators' weekend with Joanna and Fran in Bath, England!
We will create a book of stories, poems, and songs to inspire us in this time of The Great Turning. The book will serve as a companion resource to Coming Back to Life, written by Joanna Macy and Molly Young Brown to be used by facilitators leading workshops. It will also be a stand-alone literary piece, offered to leaders of similar work and the broader public. The purpose of the book is to provide a tangible source of hope and inspiration through the worldwide oral tradition of sharing stories, poems and songs, specifically ignited by the recognition of The Great Turning and expressed within the Work That Reconnects.
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These assumptions are the basis for the Work that Reconnects:
- This world, in which we are born and take our being, is alive.
It is not our supply house and sewer; it is our larger body. The intelligence that evolved us from star dust and interconnects us with all beings is sufficient for the healing of our Earth community, if we but align with that purpose.
- Our true nature is far more ancient and encompassing than the separate self defined by habit and society.
We are as intrinsic to our living world as the rivers and trees, woven of the same intricate flows of matter/energy and mind. Having evolved us into self-reflexive consciousness, the world can now know itself through us, behold its own majesty, tell its own stories--and also respond to its own suffering.
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Holon Training by Gesellschaft für angewandte Tiefenökologie e.V.
(Society for Applied Deep Ecology, Germany)
Climate change, extinction of species, natural disaster, the foreseeable ending of cheap oil, poverty, loss of jobs, social injustice – the signs of crisis are manifold. They are related to many different areas and occur more and more frequently. All dangers and damage to the foundations of life, that we see happening, are consequences of human action. This crisis in all its different implications affects us all.
The Chinese character for ›crisis‹ connotes ›danger and opportunity‹. We got used to the idea that the existing institutions of economy, politics, religion and science come up with solutions. In this crisis they prove to be more or less
inefficient, while at the same time on a grass root level a new mindset towards life, values and the position of humans in the world evolves. It heralds a turning from the industrial grow society to a sustainable society.
It emerges in our time. To encourage the emergence of this new consciousness, to support people on their way to a new orientation, who are asking ever deeper questions and to experience a way of acting that happens in groups and gives way to a larger whole – for all that we offer the holon- training. It is a one-year group process that supports the new way of seeing. It can help to assimilate this paradigm in our life and act from it.
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August 15, 2008
Dear Friends,
The Work That Reconnects is spreading. More and more people, encouraged by Joanna Macy’s books, training DVD, and website, are motivated to share their experience of this work within their own communities and networks. A good number of you have become facilitators of the work, well versed in its theory and practices. It is high time, Joanna feels, to establish a directory of experienced facilitators. Placed on her website, www.joannamacy.net, this directory will be of immense help to people seeking to find or organize workshops in their region and for particular groups or
institutions.
Joanna has asked me to serve as Coordinator of such a Network of Facilitators in the Work That Reconnects. In that term, of course, we include deep ecology work and the Council of All Beings.
If you have facilitated the work and desire to participate in this Network, I invite you to apply by filling out the attached questionnaire and returning it to me by September 15th, 2008. My email address is noted below. We will inform you by November 1st of the decision to include you, which will be made in consultation with Joanna. We then hope to have the Facilitators Network webpage up on Joanna’s site by the end of the year. There are many people guiding the work that Joanna and I do not know, but you may. You are welcome to forward this letter with attachment to others who are doing this work, and who may be interested in applying.
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Coming Back to Life (NSP 1998) provides both theory and step by step methods in the Work That Reconnects. Here is an overview.
Chapter 1. To Choose Life This is the aim of the Work That Reconnects: help us take part in the epochal shift from the industrial growth society to a life-sustaining civilization. This Great Turning is happening now on many fronts. Its three main dimensions--(1) holding actions, to save lives and species; (2) alternative structures for a livable future; and (3) shift in consciousness, cognitive, perceptual, and spiritual--are all essential and mutually reinforcing. Chapter 2. The Greatest Danger: Apatheia, the Deadening of Mind and Heart Given the widespread suffering of our time, as well as the dangers confronting us, sorrow arises, and fear and anger. "Pain for our world" is a normal, healthy response; but cultural, political, and psychological factors lead us to repress this pain--at enormous cost. This repression, or psychic numbing, is dispelled through the Work That Reconnects. Chapter 3. The Basic Miracle: Our True Nature and Power
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This group work arose in North America in the late 1970s, when it brought together many antinuclear and environmental activists as well as psychologists, artists, and spiritual practitioners. Workshops, ranging in length from an evening to a week, in churches, classrooms and police armories, drew many thousands of people from within and beyond movements for peace, justice, and a safe environment. Because of my 1979 article "How to Deal with Despair," and my 1983 book, Despair and Personal Power in the Nuclear Age, it first became known as Despair and Empowerment work. In the mid-1980s we began calling it Deep Ecology work, thanks to the consonance and inspiration we found in the deep ecological perspective. By then the work was spreading to Europe, Australia, South Asia, Japan and the Soviet Union. In 1988 Thinking Like a Mountain: toward a Council of All Beings, which I co-authored with John Seed, Pat Fleming and Arne Naess, was published, reflecting new forms of the work; and subsequent workshops often took the form of Councils of All Beings. Coming Back to Life: Practices to Reconnect our Lives, Our World, which I co-authored with Molly Young Brown, appeared ten years later to provide an up-to-date description of the theory behind the work and some sixty of its exercises, both new and old. Here the group work, reflecting the breadth of its applications, is called simply the Work that Reconnects.
An Exercise You Can Use When Giving A Talk
Chris Johnstone, Great Turning Times, December '08
The central plot-line of this work follows a spiral of four elements: gratitude, honouring pain for the world, seeing with new eyes, and going forth. I've found the combination, and sequence, of these elements allows the emergence of something much more than the sum of the parts.
At a talk I gave recently, I asked people to divide in pairs and listen to each other completing the following sentences.
"Things I love about our world include..."
"Concerns I have about our world include..."
"A perspective I find inspiring or refreshing is..."
"Steps I can take to participate in the Great Turning include..."
This was a short and simple way of moving through these four elements. With two minutes for each sentence, it took about ten minutes each way, yet the process deeply touched many of those present. I've also used these four starts to sentences in my personal journaling, starting a fresh page with each one. Whenever I'm not sure what to write, I just start the sentence again and see what naturally follows. It has been liberating, a time of kindling the spark.
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Joanna offers extended trainings for those who have experienced an introduction to the Work That Reconnects in a weekend workshop or a course (see Joanna's public teaching schedule). These 10 or more day "intensives" offer theory and practice in despair and empowerment, deep ecology, and deep time work. Intensives at other locations are often sponsored by local organizations and groups (see calendar).
Each intensive is distinctive in character and in the discoveries we make, while adhering to the following goals:
- To enlarge our vision and capacity for the part we each can play in the shift from the industrial growth society to a life-sustaining civilization.
- To understand cognitively and to integrate psychologically and spiritually the guiding assumptions of the Work that Reconnects.
- To build strong, lasting connections with sister and brother warriors for life on Earth, and to uncover the courage and creativity that mutual trust brings forth.
- To review our lives and work, assessing our gifts, and clarifying the roles we want to play in the healing of our world. An intensive provides conceptual and process tools to apply in teaching, counseling, and organizing. It is not so much training in facilitating groups as an immersion in the new understandings it generates.
If you have experienced a workshop or a course with Joanna or you have been introduced to the Work That Reconnects by someone else, and you are interested in further information on an intensive, please contact info[at]joannamacy.net.
Practicing Democracy in Times of War:
Knowing and Using Our Constitutional Rights
A Workshop in San Luis Obispo
By Joanna Macy, Pamela Meidell, and Doug Mosel
There were thirty of us, mostly from California's central coast. We were ordinary citizens--teachers, scientists, health workers, environmental and anti-nuclear activists, and the town's former fire chief. All had prepared for the workshop by completing some assigned readings about the USA PATRIOT Act, the Homeland Security Act, and the proposed Domestic Security Enhancement bill (otherwise known as Patriot II). Their website sources are identified at the end of this article.
The self-introductions the first night were striking in the extent to which they revealed the depth of our fears for our country; by the same token these confessions built a sense of trust and a yearning to reclaim our democracy.
We wanted law enforcement agents and legal advocates to help us understand the implications of these new restrictions. So we invited a local attorney, a sergeant with the local police force, and the head of the local ACLU to join us for a lengthy working session on Saturday morning. On the basis of our readings and concerns we prepared questions for them to address. At one point, the attorney, who has studied the USA PATRIOT Act, said, "If your purpose in inviting me was to make me feel that I'm not alone in my concerns, then you have succeeded."
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