Eco-psychology
and the Work that Re-connects
We all know that how we are currently living on the planet is unsustainable. Working out what we can do about it is both essential and extraordinarily challenging. One way we can do this is through the ‘Work that Re-connects’ developed by Joanna Macy. Through experiential exercises and sharing circles, we let go of the socially constructed, isolated self and reconnect with all of life. As other participants in this work have discovered, we will find how our alignment with our greater identity as part of ‘Gaia’, clarifies, dignifies, and heals our personal problems.
Reconnecting with our true selves is so central to engaging with the task of the time, to the movement towards more sustainable, eco-friendly lifestyles that this work has influenced my entire career particularly in how I trained counsellors. I first trained with Joanna Macy in 1993 but met and was greatly influenced by a talk given by John Seed in the late ’80s. I’ve been doing this work ever since I met Joanna and have introduced people to the WTR in all sorts of contexts.
The Great Turning Times
These are the Great Turning Times
we’re engaged in, hands and hearts and minds
part of a change so vast
it’s hard to see it’s taking place.
For we are the crunch generation
caught between the imperatives
of the Industrial Growth Society
that demands more, more, more,
making of our world
powerhouse and sewer,
and knowing we must find
a sustainable way of living,
more respectful of our Mother
on whom our life depends.
We’re witnessing the death throes
of this sick culture that tells us
what we need is the latest greatest computer,
a flat screen tv, a new mobile phone,
a satnav for the car, an i-pad
or whatever will help us to ignore
all that we destroy.
This peculiar ‘civilization’
that thinks it is a good idea
to spray the food we eat with toxins,
create nuclear waste we can’t dispose of,
pump the air full of poisons,
and countless other forms of madness,
is, thankfully, in a state of collapse
however much that may frighten us.
It’s time to meet our needs
without destroying the earth that feed us
and as we choose life,
we find balance, rhythm, respect.
Choose life, and life becomes adventure,
building community for the future,
with hands engaged in actions to protect
peoples, places, endangered species,
hearts that call us to create
harmonious ways of living,
and minds that know we are part
of the world that we are changing.
As we turn away from all the lies
of the culture that is dying,
we become Gaia healing herself,
nurturing life on earth,
creating alternatives for ourselves,
discovering we are ever weaving
the threads that weave
the web of life.
For these are the Great Turning Times
we’re engaged in, hands and hearts and minds
part of a change so vast
it’s hard sometimes to see it’s taking place.