Weaving Wisdon in Dark Times: a 5-Week Series of the Work That Reconnects
This series meets on Thursdays, 7 November – 12 December 2024 (28 November is off) @9am-11am PDT / 12pm-2pm EDT / 5pm-7pm GMT.
How do we come together in our diverse ways of being in the state of the world and weave wisdom in these dark times? How do we handle our heavy emotions as we face massive killings and suffering, life on Earth breaking apart, and humanity’s failure to address it? How do we bridge our differences and use them to collectively build resilience and empowerment?
The Work That Reconnects, based on the teachings of deep ecologist Joanna Macy, provides a framework and a set of practices that help us tap into our common humanity and mend the cracks in our broken hearts. It is rooted in our innate care for the natural world. We are then more able to move forward with curiosity, courage, and compassion. And we can contribute to creating a life-sustaining society that draws upon the strengths of myriad cultures, faiths, languages, ethnicities, and ways of being - where ALL humans and ALL species are equally honored.
In these series, we follow a Spiral where we start with Gratitude to ground us and encourage us to face the challenge. Then we go through the hardest stage which is Honoring Our Pain in order to process how we feel about the state of the world. Then, harnessing the energy of our emotions, we explore our different relationships to the Anti-oppression Work and decolonial struggle of the polycrisis. Settled in strong ground of honesty, we can expand our perspectives, See with New Eyes, and reconnect with our interconnectedness within the web of life. At last, having unblocked our response, we can Go Forth and play our part in the self-healing of Earth. The Spiral is not a one-way path. It is meant to be taken over and over, growing our capacity of sowing seeds of love each time we engage again in the spiral. These workshops are experiential, tailored to the needs of the participants, and designed to create a safe space where people support each other in their journey.
“The biggest gift you can give is to be absolutely present, and when you're worrying about whether you're hopeful, or hopeless, or pessimistic, or optimistic, who cares? The main thing is that you're showing up, that you're here and that you're finding ever more capacity to love this world. That is what is going to unleash our intelligence and our ingenuity and our solidarity for the healing of our world.” ― Joanna Macy, Co-Founder of the Work That Reconnects
Total cost $150. Please note that I reserve a few spots within the gift economy so if this payment presents a difficulty to you (need for financial support or inability to pay in international currencies), please let me know in the registration form.
Weaving Wisdom in Dark Times
This 5-Week Series stems from the Work That Reconnects, based on the teachings of deep ecologist Joanna Macy. The practices help us tap into our common humanity and mend the cracks in our broken hearts. We are then more able to move forward with curiosity, courage, and compassion. And we can contribute to creating a life-sustaining society that draws upon the strengths of myriad cultures, faiths, languages, ethnicities, and ways of being - where ALL humans and ALL species are equally honored.
Peer Support Program in a Chaotic Climate
Are you holding the collective grief alone? Are you feeling overwhelmed, disconnected, and hopeless because of the state of the world? Are you yearning to reignite your passion for advocacy, activism, community-building, or change-making more generally? Are you ready to do the hard inner work that this moment requires? Do you want a supportive community to help guide you through this disruptive moment? Join us for our "10 Steps to Resilience & Empowerment in a Chaotic Climate" Program.
Wisdom in the Cracks of Our Humanity
In the context of painful and unprecedented times (the inrestricted massacre of Palestinians, the previous brutality of Hamas’s attack on Israelis, the wars in Ukraine, Sudan, Congo, Somalia, Afghanistan and many other parts of the world), how do we seek wisdom in the cracks of humanity?
In this introduction to the Work That Reconnects, we will honour the deaths and the suffering of the living, replenish our energy with a reminder of all there is to be grateful for, provide a safe space to process how you feel about what is going on in the world, challenge you to see with new eyes and tap into the wisdom of our collective humanity, and reflect on your contribution, however modest, to a more life-sustaining society.
From Entanglement to Interdependence
Nature teaches us that we are bound together for better or for worse. Knowing that we are entangled in the climate crisis, we can tap into the power of our interdependence. In this free online introduction to the Work That Reconnects, we can learn how to move out of despair about our existential threat and step into collaborative action.
After COP27, time to check in?
As COP27 comes to an end, it may be a good time to check in with ourselves and ask what next. In this introduction to the Work That Reconnects, we will have a safe space to explore the feelings we may have - the despair and the frustration, the overwhelm and the anger, or even some inspiration or hope. We will be able to move through and harness the energy of these emotions. We will learn to exercise our imagination to see the bigger picture before moving forward with purpose and energy. We then come to realize that we are intimately connected not just with each other but with all living beings and this motivates us to act on behalf of all life.
At the core of the crisis, lie seeds of hope
Today, we find ourselves living through an energy crisis, cost-of-living hitting many people hard. But what about the cost-of-doing-nothing crisis? How much longer can we wait before taking decisive action on the Climate Crisis? Our external predicaments are a reflection of our internal breakdown. It’s time we took a look inside ourselves to the core of it all. Join us on this introduction to the Work That Reconnects where we come from a place of gratitude and move through our emotional landscape, before seeing the world with new eyes and going forth in decisive action on behalf of all life. By sowing seeds of hope, we can move from disillusionment and overwhelm into inspired, collaborative action.
From Despair to Active Hope
This 2-part introduction to the Work That Reconnects brings us back into relationship with each other and with the self-healing powers in the web of life. It’s a journey, that motivates and empowers us to reclaim our lives, our communities, and our planet from corporate and colonial rule. And it helps us to move through overwhelming emotions we feel around what’s going on in the world. In doing so, it awakens our resilience, our intuition, our wisdom, and our sense of interconnection with all of life.