by Molly Brown
Welcome to the February 2019 issue of Deep Times—A Journal of the Work That Reconnects.
Many of us are feeling mounting anguish as we see what is happening to our world. Those of us in the United States witness our government separating, criminalizing, and incarcerating families who are desperately seeking asylum at our southern border. We witness corruption, confusion, and lies at the highest levels of our government. We join people around the world in witnessing—and experiencing—climate and economic chaos as well as warfare. We see and feel enormous suffering all around us!
As we witness this suffering, we feel the pain of it all. It may seem unbearable and we turn away in apparent apathy. “I can’t deal with this and I have my own challenges to deal with, so I’ll tune this out and look away.” Or perhaps we go into panic: “Got to do something about this right now! But I don’t know what to do!”
Joanna Macy offers the image of walking along a path with a deep ditch on either side: one is apathy, the other panic. Our fear of pain drives us into one or the other and we fall off the path of resilience and right action. Apathy and panic–and social hysteria–are closely related and can trigger and reinforce each other. To stay on the path, we learn to accept the pain as evidence of our deep caring for life—and the Work That Reconnects helps us do that.
The articles and poems in this issue of Deep Times guide us in that direction.
We begin, as always, with Gratitude. Felipe Medina reminds us that gratitude begins at home, with our families, and asks how we can further the Great Turning in and through our family life. Rebecca Selove offers her insights about gratitude as a psychotherapist and facilitator of the Work. John Salskov-Iversen’s poem reminds us of our essential identity with water, wave, and wind.
We move into Honoring Our Pain for the World—honoring it rather than fearing it. Jolie Elan explores the fear and destruction of wildfires and their role in waking us up to our interconnectedness with all of life. John Salskov-Iversen takes an historical look at how so much of humankind moved from a symbiotic relationship with the natural world to one of extraction and exploitation of people and planet. Carolyn Treadway shares a poem on finding a way to live through anguish and despair.
Claire Rousell’s poem, “Becoming Good Ancestors” and Beth Remmes article, “Revisioning Community” help us envision possibilities for transformation in Seeing with New/Ancient Eyes.
Inspiration and guidance for Going Forth are provided by a series of videos shared by Martha O’Hehir, another poem by Claire Rousell called “The Hospital,” and a report from Werner Brandt about a conference in China where he shared the Work That Reconnects.
In the section devoted to the Evolving Edge, we feature two articles. Silvia Di Blasio explores the social justice dimensions of jobs and livelihood, while Aravinda Ananda suggests offering a land acknowledgment to honor the traditional inhabitants of the region where we are holding a workshop or gathering.
In our Resource section, we offer three reviews of books related to Work That Reconnects perspectives that we heartily recommend to our readers. Constance Washburn shares a beautiful metaphor for network weaving in our Network section, along with the Work That Reconnects Network’s vision, mission, and values.
May you find support and connection here to sustain you through these difficult times and for your work for the Great Turning.
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We plan to publish our next issue in August 2019 and welcome articles and poems on any theme. Please check the Submission Guidelines if you want to offer articles, essays, poems, images, or other material. Send submissions, proposals and queries to deeptimes@workthatreconnects.org by June 15.
Gratitude
Deep Ecology: with our kids on our backs
Where are we heading from here? I now ask. For those who are fathers or mothers, the depth of the question echoes in the lives and caring of our children, as they run, play and laugh.Gratitude..isn’t always easy
A psychotherapist’s perspective on gratitude and its value for psychological and social resilience.I am the water (for Gaia)
Honoring Our Pain for the World
Burning Love: Love Notes from the Anthropocene
"Our sacred Mother Earth is raising a fever to burn out dis-ease, overgrowth, competition, and the deadly belief that humanity exists outside the natural world, that we are separate."The White Swan: Beyond Occam’s Razor
An in-depth exploration of the historical shift from symbiotic economies to extractive economies at the dawn of the Neolithic era. Through the Pain, Into Tomorrow
Seeing with New Eyes
Becoming Good Ancestors
A "Deep Time" poem from the Future BeingsRevisioning Community
Envisioning a new story for the Great Turning.
Going Forth
Doing What We Can
Five inspiring videos show creative, sustainable, and hopeful responses to the global challenges we face today.The Hospital
"We have been sending smoke signals to the future people asking them for advice on how to be good Ancestors."The Power of the Heart in China
Werner shares his experience offering a 30-minute presentation on the Work That Reconnects at the first Holistic International Wellness Forum in Beijing in November 2018.
Evolving Edge
Exploring Regenerative Livelihoods through The Work That Reconnects
Livelihood as a social justice issue; going beyond "having a job" to finding right livelihood that furthers the Great Turning.Going Deeper: Anti-Oppression for Facilitators
Land Acknowledgements--The first installment of a series of articles exploring first steps and how to go deeper with anti-oppression approaches in facilitation.
Resources
Radical Joy for Hard Times by Trebbe Johnson
Finding Meaning and Making Beauty in Earth’s Broken Places Yellow Lotus Flower by Jen Myzel
A Children's Sing-along Book about Rising Up from the MuckThe End of Ice, by Dahr Jamail
Bearing Witness and Finding Meaning in the Path of Climate Disruption
Network
Reconnecting and Reweaving the Web of Life with Threads of Love
Network Weaving is an art form... It is sacred work as the Spider Grandmothers show us and it is how the web of life is created and maintained.
About the Work That Reconnects Network
Deep Times: A Journal of The Work That Reconnects
Vol. #4 Issue #1 – February 2019
Editor: Molly Brown
Editorial Team: Aravinda Ananda, Karina Lutz (poetry editor), Martha O’Hehir, Carmen Rumbaut, Rebecca Selove, Carolyn Treadway and Silvia Di Blasio
Webmasters: Werner Brandt & Silvia Di Blasio
Deep Times is published online twice a year by the Work That Reconnects Network.
The Network provides support, guidance, and inspiration to people all over the world in their work for the Great Turning. We welcome your donations to support the Work That Reconnects Network and Deep Times. The Work That Reconnects Network is currently a fiscal project of Interhelp so all donations are tax-deductible.
Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-ShareAlike 4.0.
