Honoring Joanna Macy
Founder of the Work that Reconnects, Buddhist philosopher, deep ecology and systems thinking scholar, nuclear activist, translator of Rilke’s poetry, adventurer, and our beloved mentor and friend
A Love Letter, from Lydia to all who grieve:
I feel you all so close, wave after wave of love for Joanna Macy and her work.
And as you love her, look up to her…take up your place in this world.
It is no accident that she transitions now in the darkest of times.
As Rilke writes, “You are the bow that shoots the arrow, and you are the target.”
I hear a call, soaring through this love we share, ripening us into this moment.
Become the Shambhala warriors you have read about. You will see darkness and desecration, and you will stay steady. You will grieve and love with eyes wide open.
You will see the interbeing of all things and take solace there. And take solace in the great love guiding the millions of people working now to repair our world.
Your very being is a frontline. You are humanity, ever-blooming, and will protect that flame in yourselves and others.
You will reach for each other, guide each other, and savor every breath of time we have with our precious planet.
For that is what we are.
We are The Great Turning
Excerpts from Cultivating Wisdom for These Times
Excerpts from Active Hope
Hope Portal
Excerpts from Cultivating Wisdom for These Times
Excerpts from Conversations with Joanna Macy & Lydia Violet
Listen Joanna Macy on On Being podcast
What a World You’ve Got Inside You
A Wild Love for the World
"In the face of impermanence and death, it takes courage to love the things of this world, and to believe that praising them is our noblest calling."
— Joanna Macy
"World As Lover, World As Self": Don't apologize if you cry for the burning of the Amazon or the Appalachia Mountains blasted open for strip mining! The sorrow and rage you feel is a measure of your humanity and your evolutionary maturity."
— Joanna Macy
