{"id":20087,"date":"2021-04-23T10:08:35","date_gmt":"2021-04-23T14:08:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=20087"},"modified":"2021-04-23T10:16:44","modified_gmt":"2021-04-23T14:16:44","slug":"the-work-that-reconnects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=20087","title":{"rendered":"The Work That Reconnects"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GL9-ZYMgSKM\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n<p><em>A few years ago, some\nmembers of our CAC community and I were blessed to be able to spend a week at\nGhost Ranch with Joanna Macy. Joanna is a brilliant Buddhist teacher, a systems\nthinker, deep ecologist, and activist for peace, justice, and a healthy environment,\nand she led us in what she calls the Work That Reconnects. Joanna (now in her\n90s) is a true elder, a woman who has dedicated her life to what she and others\ncall The Great Turning from an Industrial Growth Society to a Life-Sustaining\nSociety. She sees us in the middle of The Great Unraveling, what I might call\nan \u201cunveiling,\u201d which \u201cdraws attention to the disasters that Business As Usual\nhas caused and continues to create.\u201d [1] Ecologist Stephan Harding writes:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Work That Reconnects is conceptualized as\na spiral that maps the journey to Gaian consciousness [<em>or deep connection with the living Earth<\/em>]\nin four stages. The first is <em>gratitude,\n<\/em>in which we experience our love for life. Next is<em> honoring our pain, <\/em>in which\nwe learn how to suffer the pain of the world with others and with the world\nitself. Then, in <em>seeing with\nnew eyes, <\/em>we experience our connection with life in all its forms\nthrough all the ages. Finally, in the last stage we <em>go forth into action <\/em>in the world as open human\nbeings, aware of our mutual belonging in the web of life, learning through\nfeedback in our social and ecological domains. [2]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Richard here: In their book <\/em>Coming Back to Life, <em>Joanna Macy and Molly Young Brown\ndescribe powerful experiential practices that take groups through each stage. I\ncan vouch for their effectiveness! By the end of the week at Ghost Ranch many\nof us had made discoveries similar to those described here:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What then can we expect to take with us, as we\ngo forth into the world and our individual lives?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>A heightened awareness of the suffering and dangers besetting our world with a greater respect for our capacity to face them without dodging, denying or numbing out<br> \u00a0<\/li><li>An upsurge of energy as we unblock feedback loops by accepting our pain for the world, reframing it as compassion<br> \u00a0<\/li><li>A wider sense of identity as a unique and integral part of the living body of Earth<br> \u00a0<\/li><li>A growing appreciation for community\u2014with each other, with our brother-sister species, with our ancestors and future generations. We feel supported by them as well as accountable to them<br> \u00a0<\/li><li>A stronger motivation to join with others in service to life; confidence in the power of our solidarity<br> \u00a0<\/li><li>A fresh sense of the diversity of our gifts and of the many interdependent roles to be played in the Great Turning<br> \u00a0<\/li><li>Hence, gratitude for who we are as individuals, with all our personal strengths and limitations\u2014even our wounds\u2014and for our desire to be of use<br> \u00a0<\/li><li>Commitment to goals extending beyond our individual lifetime; liberation from dependence on immediate, measurable results<br> \u00a0<\/li><li>Gladness in being alive now, in this epochal moment on Earth; a sense of the privilege of taking part in the Great Turning [3] \u00a0<\/li><li>__________________________________________<\/li><li>Sarah Young&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>KEEP YOUR EYES ON ME, not only for direction but also for empowerment. I never lead you to do something without equipping you for the task. That is why it\u2019s so important to seek My will in everything you do. There are many burned-out Christians who think more is always better, who deem it unspiritual to say no. In order to know My will, you must spend time with Me\u2014enjoying My Presence. This is not an onerous task but a delightful privilege. I will show you the path of Life; in My Presence is fullness of Joy; at My right hand there are pleasures forevermore. PSALM 141:8; ISAIAH 48:17;<br> PSALM 16:11 NKJV<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblica.com\/en-us\/bible\/online-bible\/niv\/psalm\/141\/\">Psalm 141:8<\/a><\/strong><sup>8<\/sup>But my eyes are fixed on you, Sovereign LORD; in you I take refuge-do not give me over to death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> <strong>Isaiah<\/strong> <strong>48<\/strong>:<strong>17<\/strong> \u201cThus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go.\u201d King James Version (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bing.com\/search?q=King+James+Version&amp;filters=sid%3a5464f92c-9333-9f62-eaeb-d27cad07677c&amp;form=ENTLNK\">KJV<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Psalm 16:11<\/strong> You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Read verse in <strong>New King James Version<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Young, Sarah. Jesus Calling Morning and Evening Devotional (Jesus Calling\u00ae) (p. 234). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A few years ago, some members of our CAC community and I were blessed to be able to spend a week at Ghost Ranch with Joanna Macy. Joanna is a brilliant Buddhist teacher, a systems thinker, deep ecologist, and activist for peace, justice, and a healthy environment, and she led us in what she calls [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20087"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20087"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20087\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20094,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20087\/revisions\/20094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}