Welcome to our last episode, where we look at the possibilities of Going Forth with new learnings and renewed feelings.  "We have come to see with new eyes our ineluctable place in the web of life, our connections with all beings through space and time and the kind of power that is ours for creating a life-sustaining culture. Now we use this new vision to discern more clearly the distinctive role we each can play in the Great Turning.” (Joanna Macy) Please prepare a quiet space and make...

“Realize that for every ongoing war and religious outrage and environmental devastation and bogus Iraqi attack plan, there are a thousand counter-balancing acts of staggering generosity and humanity and art and beauty happening all over the world, right now, on a breathtaking scale, from flower box to cathedral." — Mark Morford” In this episode Joanna Tomkins will read some of the texts and exercises from the book Coming Back to Life that are used as practices during Work That Reconnects...

“Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding. Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so you must know pain. And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy." — Khalil Gibran” In this episode Joanna Tomkins will read some of the texts in the book Coming Back to Life that are used as practices during the Work That Reconnects retreats. These...

Having read the theory behind the Work that Reconnects from the book Coming Back to Life by Joanna Macy and Molly Young Brown, facilitator Joanna Tomkins will guide us through some of the practices extracted from the book Coming Back to Life. Please prepare a quiet space and make sure you are comfortable. You will need a notebook and pen.  This episode is about Gratitude, the first stage of the spiral of the WTR, which was introduced in the previous episode. The Work that Reconnects is...

In this Episode, Joanna Tomkins reads from the book "Active Hope" by Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone to introduce the Spiral of the Work That Reconnects. The rich and broad knowledge of the work has been condensed into this incredibly simple structure upon which all the practices of the Work That Reconnects depend. It goes through the four following stages: 1) Coming from Gratitude 2) Honouring our Pain for the World 3) Seeing with New (or Ancient) Eyes 4) Going Forth In the following...

In this episode Joanna Tomkins, a Work that Reconnects facilitator reads selected extracts from Chapter 3 of the book "Coming Back to Life" by Joanna Macy and Molly Young Brown.  “THE GREAT TURNING ARISES in response to what we know and feel is happening to our world. It entails both the perception of danger and the means to act. As conscious, embodied beings endowed with multiple senses, we are geared to respond: instantly we leap from the path of an oncoming truck, dash to douse a fire,...

In this episode, Joanna Tomkins delivers a weaving extracts from the second chapter of "Coming Back to Life" by Joanna Macy and Molly Young Brown.  As Joanna Macy says: "Of all the dangers we face, from climate chaos to permanent war, none is so great as this deadening of our response. For psychic numbing impedes our capacity to process and respond to information. The energy expended in pushing down despair is diverted from more crucial uses, depleting the resilience and imagination needed...

In this episode Joanna Tomkins, introduces the next cornerstone of the framework of the "Work That Reconnects": The Three Dimensions of the Great Turning. To do so, she borrows an extract from another book: Active Hope by Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone. The First Dimension: Holding Actions The Second Dimension: Life-Sustaining Systems and Practices The Third Dimension: Shift in Consciousness These are the 3 ways we are participating in the Great Turning. The book "Coming Back to Life"...

In this episode, Joanna Tomkins, a facilitator of the Work That Reconnects, provides insights into the First Chapter of the book "Coming Back to Life", by Joanna Macy and Molly Young Brown, called "to Choose Life".  Including quotes by the contributors to this inspiring book, this opening episode will invite you to listen deeper to your own questioning and maybe research further on some of these great authors.   This episode presents the "3 stories" that are exposed in The Work That...

This first episode is the introduction this course based on the "Work That Reconnects" by Joanna Macy, a growing network of people working to truly look at and honour their pain for the world to work towards "Active Hope", taking part in the "Great Turning", this historical moment we have been called to be part of. It includes a reading of the core assumptions that motivate the Work That Reconnects and a brief introduction to the historical background. I hope you feel inspired to read more...