The Work That Reconnects Analysis

“The Work That Reconnects” both the book, and workshop are vital for this time in the world. Part of what makes Joanna Macy’s work so compelling and effective is the incorporation and blending of deep ecology, Buddhism, and systems theory to weave insightful and healing teachings. As was mentioned during the workshop by its facilitators, The Work That Reconnects validates many of the feelings that we all experience around planetary despair. This work, helps people to realize that they have a choice to respond to this despair and creates a sense of agency in individuals such as myself. It helps us realize the socio-economic forces which are destructive to life on Earth and helps us to shed some of the harmful bad habits that we are complicit
The amount of suffering caused by corporate greed, by human greed, feels overpowering. I ask myself how do I make the changes necessary, as one person, fighting a culture that is so out of balance? How do I face imbalance in myself? The book Coming Back to Life: The Updated Guide to the Work that Reconnects offered an introduction and rooting into wisdom, that was then deepened by revisiting this material in the workshop intensive. The first chapter, which outlined the three narratives present in our world at this time, Business as Usual, the Great Unraveling, and the Great Turning, helped me to locate myself in this great mess. The purpose of the realizations made in the Great Turning, as framed in the book are to, “save us from succumbing to either panic or paralysis. They help us resist the temptation to stick our heads in the sand.” (Macy,
I see this as the most effective way to combat the industrial growth society, because people of power, people with money and influence who are involved in massive corporations need to get on board with this work for a shift to happen in time. I find the questions of concern on how well this can work very relevant and intriguing to contemplate. Such as, “How do we keep The Work That Reconnects from becoming just a feel-good experience that improves morale without generating structural change?” (Macy, 71) This is such a good question, because more and more I see the desire for self-improvement placed above collective improvement, many practices are co-opted by the “self-help” industry simply to further individual gains. So to the same happens with corporations, how can these practices actually take root in a way that enacts real institutional change? My deepest hope is that this work can make it into corporate settings and that this will wake the hearts and minds of the elite, into compassion and action for our