by Rachel Allen
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My heart hurts most days. In my heart exists a grief so vast and wide for all of us.
Other times, fear grips me and holds on, shrinking and shriveling any tendrils of hope.
Doom scrolling.
How often do you do this?
When you come up for air, how is your nervous system? How much time has gone by?
I have a notecard on my desk with these words in black sharpie. READ AND WRITE MORE, SCROLL LESS!
It takes resolve and paying attention to my bullet journal not to get caught up in the intense urgency of all the things now. The intense weather patterns don't help and the anxiety and overwhelm are palpable in many spaces and places with people.
I don’t always succeed.
Combating my existential dread feels like a full-time job. Staying informed and choosing what might be a skillful action rather than reactivity requires discernment and discipline.
Joanna Macy, root teacher of The Work That Reconnects, teaches us that even now, in the midst of so much unrest, we can opt for a life-sustaining world.
Part of opting into a life-sustaining world is recognizing the stories present in these times. Here, we can consciously choose to co-create the story that lies underneath the noise.
The Great Turning.
Let’s explore these stories together.
Business as Usual.
This is the story that there is little to change about our lifestyles. The central narrative says we need to get ahead, have more, make money, and continue to live without regard for our impact on the planet or how our actions/policies impact other humans.
We all take part in this. For example, even with awareness of the environmental impact, I, and perhaps you as well, choose to fly to travel.
There is a strong evolutionary pull towards organizing our lives into routines and efficiency.
The Great Unraveling.
This is the story we hear from climate scientists and environmental activists and independent media that links our actions in Business as Usual to climate catastrophe. This is also the story of the collapse of our economic and social systems as well as our biological and ecological systems.
The unbearable nature of this story explains why so many of us live our lives in Business as Usual mode. This may also explain (but not justify) the rise of far-right, authoritarian platforms.
So what remains?
The Great Turning.
This story arises from those who see possibilities in the shift from an Industrial Growth Society to a Life Sustaining Society where the Great Unraveling is recognized but doesn’t have the last word.
New and emergent responses that define the Great Turning seek collaboration, adaptation, reciprocity, and collective engagement together for the sake of Earth and all her species.
3 areas/dimensions that are mutually reinforcing where this is occurring :
Actions to slow damage to Earth and living systems.
Transformation of our common life (emergent economic and social systems).
A fundamental shift in worldview and values.
An example of all three of these dimensions can be seen in Standing Rock.
In 2016, permits were given to construct a pipeline to carry 19 million gallons of toxic fracked oil a day from NorthDakota to Illinois. This pipeline traveled through sacred land of the Lakota Sioux, with the likelihood of contaminating water and impacting the biodiversity in these lands.
A movement arose led by Lakota Sioux and supported by hundreds of First Nations Peoples and millions of other peoples.
An encampment arose under the common understanding of Water is Life.
This consisted of a holding section to stop the pipeline through sacred lands of First Nation Peoples, the sharing of resources and community care in the encampment and the shared values of the land as sacred through ritual and prayer acknowledging the sacredness of Earth.
*Note: The pipeline still is in the courts as of 2024.
adrienne maree brown in her book, Emergent Strategy calls upon the imagination by black science fiction writer Octavia Butler and biomimicry. Instead of the artificial systems of capitalism, socialism, etc…observing how nature adapts, responds, and self-organizes combined with radical liberatory imagination defines Emergent Strategy.
For me, the mindset of not only seeing myself as this individual named Rachel but as an expression of Earth, as a part of the diversity of species, as an essential part of the whole. Here diversity and uniqueness are celebrated rather than hyper-individualism. Joanna Macy calls this the awareness of The Ecological Self.
If I see myself, other humans, and other forms of life as part of the living systems of this living, breathing organism that is our planet, our home, how might this shift my thoughts, behaviors, and actions?
Does this remind anyone of ...YOGA?
Covid brought glimpses of new ways of organizing. Overnight, little wooden community libraries became food pantries for non-perishable items. People who sewed created tons of masks for healthcare workers and frontline workers until the supply chain caught up with the demand. Mutual aid and collective care became part of how we functioned.
This new way of organizing can be witnessed in the communities of The Thread and The Circle! This Beloved Community seeks to be in integrity with the roots of the practice and practices learning and growing together.
Recently, with Hurricane Helene, we witnessed mutual aid, collective care, and organizing alongside the efforts of FEMA and the Red Cross.
What if we chose to live this way, not as a result of a disaster, but as a way of embodying our collective humanity?
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We can explore together emergent possibilities through the Spiral of The Work That Reconnects. First, we ground ourselves in gratitude. We are existing in what is possibly the most critical and challenging moment for life on earth. We can root our awareness in our aliveness. Even in the challenges, we can find awe and wonder in our aliveness in the aliveness all around us
Second, we can befriend our world. Instead of denying or numbing the pain we feel for the suffering of the world, we can honor it. This heartbreak is a sacred part of ourselves and is a doorway to healing.
We can see with new eyes when we shift to a new perspective. This can be fueled and informed by discovering that our world is both our lover and ourselves. We can see our commonality with people from all walks of life and all periods of time as well as other species.
Empty of everything, but the present moment, and the practice itself, we are free to go forth into uncertainty, for now is the only time we can act, the only time to wake up. There is no need to compete or win out over others. A deeper ache, more ancient desire, takes hold, and with it, abroader field for the choices we make. It is time to go forth for the sake of the living planet that we now realize ourselves to be.
Excerpt from 30th Anniversary Edition of World as Lover, World as Self, Joanna Macy.
If this all sounds intriguing, consider joining us on Saturday, November 2nd,
1:00 - 3:00 PM, EST on The Thread Yoga Collective for The Work That Reconnects: A Workshop for Challenging Times. Register Here for this event.
You are warmly welcomed to explore The Work That Reconnects, developed by eco-Buddhist scholar and humanitarian, Joanna Macy through embodied practices to inspire actionable hope.
During this immersive session, participants will explore moving through the spiral of The Work That Reconnects.
Components of the Spiral:
Ground in Gratitude
Honoring Our Pain
Seeing With New Eyes
Going Forth
Practices that guide us through the Spiral of The Work That Reconnects:
Somatic Movement: Grounding/Tapping Practices. Body Movement and Breath-Work
Simple Songs: Music is used here to support moving through the various stages of the spiral.
Facilitated Conversations & Small Group Discussions: Questions and prompts for journaling and/or small group discussions.
Guided Meditations: Meditations from/inspired by The Work That Reconnects
Participants may want to have the following:
Yoga mat/props and/or a chair and blankets, bolsters, or cushions.
Journal and pen/pencil
Water/tea
* Note this is not being recorded.
Register for The Work That Reconnects HERE
About Joanna Macy
Joanna Macy, PhD, teacher and author, is a scholar of Buddhism, systems thinking, and deep ecology. Interweaving her scholarship with six decades of activism, her wide-ranging work addresses psychological and spiritual issues of the nuclear age, the cultivation of ecological awareness, and the fruitful resonance between Buddhist thought and contemporary science. Her group methods have been adopted and adapted widely in classrooms, churches, and grassroots organizing work. Her work helps people transform despair and apathy in the face of overwhelming social and ecological crises into constructive, collaborative action. As the root teacher of the Work That Reconnects, Macy has created a ground-breaking framework for personal and social change of seeing the world as our larger body. Macy's work on the Great Turning envisions a post-empire, post-corporate future for humanity based in sustainable, just, and caring communities. She continues to write and teach in Berkeley, California.
Rachel Allen, CMP E-RYT 200 is a teacher on The Thread, a longtime community organizer and student of The Work That Reconnects. She is a member of The Founder’s Circle in The School for the Great Turning that engages in ongoing study and exploration of Joanna Macy’s work.
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