Weekend of Active Hope for Times of Chaos and Crises
How do we engage consciously and creatively with what’s unfolding in the world around us without shutting down or burning out? During this weekend we make space for our gratitude and grief, our rage and numbness, allowing ourselves to experience collective practices for creating a just and life-sustaining future for all.
In the midst of climate breakdown, violent conflict and oppression, political polarization, increasing income disparity and ecological destruction, it's easy to fall into despair, overwhelm and numbness. The dominant culture of modernity, built on colonial power and industrial growth, thrives on this psychic numbing. This impedes our capacity to respond with resilience and imagination.
During this weekend, we will learn about and experience the spiral of The Work that Reconnects and the practice of Active Hope, developed by eco-philosopher and environmental activist Joanna Macy. This work was developed over many decades using teachings from systems thinking, deep ecology, deep time, undoing oppression and spiritual traditions.
This spiral journey includes four stages that we will experience together as an interactive group process in depth across the weekend. It’s a process we can experience over and over again beyond this weekend, each time gaining new insights, boosting our resilience and strengthening our resolve to act on behalf of all life.
Is this for me? This gathering is open to anyone who currently has the capacity in their lives to experience this work within a group setting. If you are called to creatively explore how to be more fully alive and engaged in these unprecedented times, perhaps this weekend is for you. It is suitable for anyone both new to this work or with prior experience.
The weekend will be experiential in nature and will include dialogue in small groups, some brief meditation practices, with periods for silence, individual reflection, creative practice and rest.