The Work of Grief and Love
Thursday, September 18, 2025
When you look at the world as lover, every being becomes precious to you. And the impulse to act on behalf of life becomes irresistible.
—Joanna Macy, World as Lover, World as Self
The Tears of Things Reader’s Guide introduces Buddhist teacher and environmental activist Joanna Macy (1929–2025):
When Joanna Macy traveled the world with her husband, a Peace Corps director, she supported Tibetan refugees in India and discovered Buddhism. After earning a PhD in Buddhism and systems theory, Macy helped create the field of “deep ecology” by articulating “the Work That Reconnects,” a process of group transformation that acknowledges ecological grief and encourages people into collective action. Macy has empowered countless people in her workshops to face their grief at the world’s injustices and act with hope, reminding us that by grieving with others and engaging in collective grief, we can “find strength in their strengths, bolstering our own individual supplies of courage, commitment, and endurance.” [1]
Joanna Macy identifies four stages of work that support our ongoing participation in the healing of the world:
The spiral of the Work That Reconnects maps out an empowerment process that journeys through four successive movements, or stations: coming from gratitude, honoring our pain for the world, seeing with new eyes, and going forth. This spiral … reminds us that we are larger, stronger, deeper, and more creative than we’ve grown accustomed to believing. When we come from gratitude, we become more present to the wonder of being alive in this amazing world, to the many gifts we receive, to the beauty and mystery it offers. Yet the very act of looking at what we love and value in our world brings with it an awareness of the vast violation underway, the despoliation and unraveling….
From gratitude we naturally flow to honoring our pain for the world. Dedicating time and attention to honoring this pain opens up space to hear our sorrow, fear, outrage, and other felt responses to what is happening to our world…. Our pain for the world not only alerts us to danger but also reveals our profound caring. And this caring derives from our interconnectedness with all of life. We need not fear it.
In the third stage, we step further into the perceptual shift that recognizes our pain for the world arises from our love for life. Seeing with new eyes reveals the wider web of resources available to us through our rootedness within a deeper, wider, ecological self…. It opens us to a new view of what is possible and a new grasp of our power to act.
The final station, going forth, involves clarifying our vision of how we can act for the healing of our world and identifying practical steps that move our vision forward…. With the shift of perception that seeing with new eyes brings, you can let go of the need to plan every step; instead trust your intention…. Focus on finding and playing your part, offering your own contribution, your unique gift of Active Hope. [2]
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Sarah Young Jesus Calling
I designed you to live in union with Me. This union does not negate who you are; it actually makes you more fully yourself. When you try to live independently of Me, you experience emptiness and dissatisfaction. You may gain the whole world and yet lose everything that really counts.
Find fulfillment through living close to Me, yielding to My purposes for you. Though I may lead you along paths that feel alien to you, trust that I know what I am doing. If you follow Me wholeheartedly, you will discover facets of yourself that were previously hidden. I know you intimately – far better than you know yourself. In union with Me, you are complete. In closeness to Me, you are transformed more and more into the one I designed you to be.
RELATED BIBLE VERSES:
Mark 8:36 (NLT)
36 And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?
Additional insight regarding Mark 8:36: Many people spend all their energy seeking pleasure. Jesus said, however, that worldliness, which is centered on possessions, position, or power, is ultimately worthless. Whatever you have on earth is only temporary; it cannot be exchanged for your soul. If you work hard at getting what you want, you might eventually have a “pleasurable” life, but in the end, you will find it hollow and empty. Are you willing to make the pursuit of God more important than selfish pursuits? Follow Jesus, and you will know what it means to live abundantly now and to have eternal life as well.
Psalm 139:13-16 (NLT)
13 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body
and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.
15 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,
as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
16 You saw me before I was born.
Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out
before a single day had passed.
Additional insight regarding Psalm 139:13-15: God’s character goes into the creation of every person. When you feel worthless or even begin to hate yourself, remember that God’s Spirit is ready and willing to work within you. We should have as much respect for ourselves as our Maker has for us.
2nd Corinthians 3:17-18 (NLT)
17 For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.
Additional insight regarding 2nd Corinthians 3:17: Those who were trying to be saved by keeping the Old Testament law were soon tied up in rules and ceremonies. But now, through the Holy Spirit, God provides freedom from sin and condemnation (Romans 8:1). When we trust Christ to save us, he removes our burden of trying to please him and our guilt for failing to do so. By trusting Christ we are loved, accepted, forgive, and freed to live for him. “Wherever the Spirit of the Lord, there is freedom.”
Additional insight regarding 2nd Corinthians 3:18: The glory that the Spirit imparts to the believer is more excellent and lasts longer than the glory that Moses experienced. By gazing at the nature of God with unveiled minds, we can be more like him. In the Good news, we see the truth about Christ, and it transforms us morally as we understand and apply it. Through learning about Christ’s life, we can understand how wonderful God is and what he is really like. As our knowledge deepens, the Holy Spirit helps us to change. Becoming Christlike is a progressive experience (see Romans 8:29; Galatians 4:19; Philippians 3:21; 1st John 3:2). The more closely we follow Christ, the more we will be like him.
