Learn more about The Work That Reconnects
Overview: About The Work That Reconnects & The Three Stories of Our Times
Podcast: We Are The Great Turning
Book: Coming Back To Life: The Updated Guide To The Work That Reconnects
Experiences: Work That Reconnects Newtork
Here are the first few “core assumptions” of The Work That Reconnects, which I deeply resonate with:
Our Earth is alive. It is not a supply house and sewer for the Industrial Growth Society. As most indigenous traditions teach, the Earth is our larger body.
Our true nature is far more ancient and encompassing than the separate self defined by habit and Industrial Growth Society. The planet as a living system, having evolved us into self-reflexive consciousness, can now know and see itself through us, behold its own majesty, tell its own stories — and also respond to its own suffering.
Our experience of moral pain for our world springs from our interconnectedness with all beings – including humans of all cultures – from which also arise our powers to act on their behalf. When we block our pain for the world, by denying it or repressing it, or viewing it as a private pathology, our power to take part in the healing of our world is diminished.
Unblocking occurs when our pain for the world is not only intellectually validated, but also experienced and expressed. Cognitive information about the social and ecological crises we face is generally insufficient to mobilize us. Only when we allow ourselves to experience our feelings of pain for our world, can these feelings reveal on a visceral level our mutual belonging in the web of life and free us to act on our moral authority.
0:00 Hi, welcome back to my week of gifts for all of you. So I hope that you had a chance to read the article about becoming “collapse aware.”
0:12 There's a couple of things that I thought I would call out that, particularly resonated for me. I think the biggest thing really is just this idea of almost living in two states at the same time, which is something I've really noticed in the last year, especially.
0:33 I've been talking to other people about, and I don't think I'm the only one at all, especially since the election. But this sort of constant awareness of—she talks about there being “Here,” where you like make a living and you live in the normal world
0:48 that we've become accustomed to, right, of like neoliberal politics and extractive economies and political systems, and just larger systems, that really seem on the edge of collapse or really at the end of their, you know, capabilities of handling where we are.
1:08 And that, you know, that those systems are—the piece that resonates, too, is those are really diametrically opposed to the values of the earth, and that we are coming up against that opposition in a very different tangible way, I think, in what we're seeing just in the climate, especially even just in the last year.
1:25 So this idea that, “There,” where we, we kind of just have, you know, we have to survive, right, we have to have jobs and be in the world and try not to freak our kids out too bad and, you know, kind of exist in this current system even though we can see the end of it.
1:43 We can see how it's really failing on real levels. And then “Here” being this, like, other alternate consciousness of, these things might end really in our lifetimes really relatively soon. And what does “end” look like? We don't really know.
2:03 But she talks about this sort of idea of, like, normal modes, right? Like, our normal modes of doing things, right?
2:09 Like, being able to travel anywhere we want in the world easily, or being able to have things shipped from anywhere we want very easily, or, knowing what the weather is going to look like, you know, in any regular way. Or, you know, the American economy growing and being healthy and having a lot of jobs available.
2:25 These are all things that could really change relatively quickly, right?
2:32 And holding that kind of awareness constantly, and how do you sort of navigate having to live in both of those realities simultaneously?
2:41 That's something I've really, really felt a lot, especially since reading The Parable of the Sower, which I also wrote about at the end of the year. And if you haven't read it, I think it's one of the most tangible evocations of what that new normal could look like.
2:59 So the next gift that I want to share with all of you, that I found really powerful over the last month or so since I discovered it, is The Work That Reconnects, which is basically like a facilitation protocol, but also just a way of thinking about the world, that was developed by Joanna Macy,
3:20 who is this really powerful, rebellious climate activist, who really started her work in the 60s and 70s. And she developed protocols, basically, to help people that are doing this activist work kind of manage these emotional, internal stress
3:49 of going up against these huge systems that feels like you're never gonna change, and the constant setbacks, and just the exhaustion, and whatever.
3:56 And the thing that really resonated with me about it originally is that, one of the things she talks about is, basically, you go through this spiral that is gratitude, being with the pain of the world, seeing through new and ancient eyes, and then taking action.
4:13 And one thing she talks about is how we really have to let ourselves be in that emotional pain place, and actually feel it so we can move through it, because otherwise what's happening for a lot of us is we're sort of afraid to feel how painful these things are to look at, and so we end up kind of numbing,
4:32 and we get stuck, and we can't take action and move forward, and that really really resonated with the work that I've done and my own personal journey: needing to really feel those emotions and be able to move through them.
4:40 So I thought that was really beautiful. And then as I dug deeper into the work, the other piece that I want to share too, that really resonated is this idea, she talks about these three stories.
4:49 And just as a storyteller myself, as a former journalist, and you know, this is what I do, I know the power of the stories that we tell ourselves about where we are.
4:59 And so she talks about these three stories that we can tell about where we are in this moment in time.
5:05 So there's sort of businesses as usual, and you can see this reflected in, she talks about it specifically around climate, where we are with the climate crisis.
5:16 But I would, to me, I really feel it as like a larger sort of like existential crisis, right, for humans.
5:21 But it's like, Business As Usual right, which is like this extreme growth paradigm that we're in. Where we just keep growing and everything goes the way it is.
5:31 And there's nothing we can do about it. And this is just the way the system is. And we kind of throw our hands up, right?
5:36 So that's sort of one. And you can hear where that exists a lot in our world and inside of ourselves.
5:41 And then there's The Great Unraveling, which is sort of like a little bit what we're starting to get out in this collapse article, which is like just actually seeing the fact that things are unraveling.
5:53 And that there's a potential collapse and that things are going to be lost. But the thing about The Great unraveling is that it's sort of coming from a place of hopelessness, of like everything is F*ed.
6:05 Frankly, there's nothing we can do. We're in big trouble. Again, we kind of we might as well just give up.
6:10 And then she talks about this third story, which is The Great Turning, which is really where her work is coming from, and where I hope we can all come from more. Which is this idea of, you know, she talks about it in terms of like turning our attention towards the places where things are getting better.
6:26 Even if they're small or they seem insignificant. But really putting our attention on what's moving forward. And to me, I've been feeling this interesting, like, addition to that,
6:38 which is, yes, absolutely, in particular I'm really interested in what are the opportunities that this kind of collapse might create?
6:46 That's hard to think about, you know, I think, uh, yeah, it's hard to think about, because obviously there's going to be a lot of pain and danger.
6:59 And I hope that some of us make it to the other side to actually get to have these thoughts. But to me, The Great Turning is also, like, we are in this breakdown-breakthrough moment, this apocalyptic moment, right?
7:11 Which is where the veils are brought back, and we can see what's next. And so, to me, the big question is, what are we turning our attention towards?
7:21 We're recognizing that this thing is ending, right? We're trying to kind of hospice this gently into its death stage. But what is then going to be rebirthed? And I really think we have a lot of impact on where we put our attention and how we think about what's next for us.
7:40 And so, I'll share some places that you can learn more about The Work That Reconnects. I'm interested in maybe facilitating a little bit and I'll talk about that when I do.
7:50 But there's a great podcast, there's books. I've actually been signing up to experience some of this work, facilitated, which is really wonderful.
8:00 But I think there's a lot of great ways of thinking about these really huge, difficult, long-timeline problems that the people in this community have been doing for a long time and I find it super helpful and I hope you will too.
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