The Work that Reconnects
My Journey to Joanna Macy’s Work
Over thirty years ago, I had a destiny dream: in a circle with others, I was
giving voice to a tree and decrying human superiority. When I mentioned this powerful
experience to a friend, she told me it sounded as if I was enacting a ritual which she had
recently participated in with Joanna Macy. Within less than a year, I was given an
opportunity to take a course with Joanna, inviting us into intimacy with the
more-than-human world. We were introduced to her unique interweaving of Deep
Ecology, Systems Theory, and Engaged Buddhism, while focusing on a ritual called The
Council of All Beings, which I recognized as being the circle in my dream. I was deeply
impacted and wove some of her teachings into my area of concentration for my BA
degree in Mythopoetics and Sacred Ecology and offered workshops around The Council of All Beings in the US and abroad for a few years.
Decades later, teaching courses such as Eco-Spirituality, and Sacred Activism at Antioch
University gave me a chance to return to Joanna’s work and bring in her practices in new and deeper ways. I was happy to see that her work had flourished and expanded into what is now called The Work that
Reconnects. Indeed, the manual I had known decades ago, Coming Back to Life,
co-authored with Molly Brown, had expanded to twice the size! I was moved by how
deeply my students responded to the work and wanted to focus increasingly on giving
ways to keep hope alive in these urgent times.
When my time as a core faculty member was ending, I knew I wanted to take up
facilitating Joanna’s work in a wider way. I was fortunate to take the Spiral Journey International
Facilitator Training. It was truly enriching to be one of only a handful of US citizens among participants from many continents.
I am currently involved in designing some programs around this work to be offered in 2026. Stay tuned and please let me know if this work draws you and you’d like to know when I have offerings on Ecocentric themes.