The Work That Reconnects arises in direct response to the ecological, social, and economic crises of our time. It helps people understand and meet these challenges with clear eyes and open heart, without letting emotional overwhelm induce psychic numbing, panic, or scapegoating.
Joanna Macy
Reconnecting to ourselves through mindfulness practices, connecting to others through interactive exercises, and reawakening to our interconnection to the earth give us a foundation for our work in the world. As a facilitator of The Work That Reconnects, I bring years of experience to my workshops.
Evening, daylong and weekend workshops as well as weeklong retreats are available.
Business leaders, teachers, therapists, environmentalists, activists, and all of us dealing with the crises of our time can benefit from the Work That Reconnects.
What is The Great Turning?
It’s been called the Ecological Revolution, the Sustainability Revolution, even the Necessary Revolution. We call it the Great Turning and see it as the essential adventure of our time. It involves the transition from a doomed economy of industrial growth to a life-sustaining society committed to the recovery of our world. This transition is already well under way.
Why the Work That Reconnects?
If you are feeling overwhelmed, helpless, burnt out, or lonely in your love and concern for our world, the Work That Reconnects is medicine for your soul. If you are actively working for a sane and livable world, you'll find inspiration and support here; you'll find more of your tribe.
Evolution of the Work: The spiral of the Work moves through Gratitude, Honoring Our Pain for the World, Seeing with New Eyes, and Going Forth. This progression allows us to open our hearts, feel our grief, fear, and rage so we can also feel our love for the world and our passion for justice. We then take a new look at our ways of understanding the world around us so we can find new ways of working for the healing of the earth. We then go forth with plans and passion for building a sustainable living culture.
The Work That Reconnects is highly experiential and interactive. Practices include deep dialogue, meditations, small group interactions, time outdoors to reconnect with the natural world, art, music, and movement, along with presentations and conversations on concepts such as systems thinking, deep ecology, and the state of the world.
Aims of the Work :
The central purpose of the Work That Reconnects is to bring people into new relationship with their world, motivating and empowering them to take part in the Great Turning, reclaiming our lives and our planet from corporate rule.
In order to do this, the Work That Reconnects:
provides practices and perspectives drawn from systems science, Deep Ecology, and spiritual traditions that elicit our existential connectivity with the web of life through space and time.
awakens stamina and buoyancy to live with full awareness of both the Great Turning and the Great Unraveling, and to embrace the uncertainty.
affirms that our intention to act for the sake of all beings can become the organizing principle of our life.
helps us identify the strengths and resources we can mobilize in our commitment to the self-healing of the world.
presents the Great Turning as a challenge that every one of us, in collaboration with others, is fully capable of meeting in our own distinctive ways.
Learning more about the Work That Reconnects: Books available here and at bookstores everywhere.
Active Hope: How to Face the Mess we’re in without Going Crazy, by Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone, 2012.
Coming Back to Life: The Updated Guide to the Work That Reconnects, by Joanna Macy and Molly Brown, 2014
I have lead exercises and workshops in the Work That Reconnects with conservationist, teachers, college students, elders, and the general public. Opening our hearts and minds to the love and the grief we feel for the world empowers us to act on behalf of the earth by healing the rift between what is and what we want it to be.