A deeper shift in values, thinking and perceptions
When we identify with a group, such as our family or community, this becomes part of who we are, part of our identity. Acting for the wellbeing of the groups we connect with may well feel normal and natural to us. This is what gives our lives meaning and purpose. As psychologist Martin Seligman writes:
“A meaningful life is one that joins with something larger than we are, and the larger that something is, the more meaning our lives have.”
The third dimension of the Great Turning involves a broadening of identification beyond our immediate family, ethnic group, religion or country. We begin to feel more deeply connected with, and part of, life itself. This widening of our identity grows naturally out of modern scientific ideas like systems thinking and Gaia Theory. It can also be viewed as a spiritual process. Either way it can bring many benefits: it leads to a deepened sense of purpose and a richer network of support to draw from. The following poem, edited into verse by Tom Atlee from an interview with Joanna Macy, expresses this.
When you act on behalf
of something greater than yourself,
you begin
to feel it acting through you
with a power that is greater than your own.
This is grace.
Today, as we take risks
for the sake of something greater
than our separate, individual lives,
we are feeling graced
by other beings and by Earth itself.
Those with whom and on whose behalf we act
give us strength
and eloquence
and staying power
we didn't know we had.
We just need to practice knowing that
and remembering that we are sustained
by each other
in the web of life.
Our true power comes as a gift, like grace,
because in truth it is sustained by others.
If we practice drawing on the wisdom
and beauty
and strengths
of our fellow humans
and our fellow species
we can go into any situation
and trust
that the courage and intelligence required
will be supplied.
Poem taken from website at http://www.co-intelligence.org/Grace_Macy.html
To find out more about The Great Turning, see the following books and websites.
Books
Coming Back to Life – Joanna Macy and Molly Brown Young
This book is a practical guide to the Work that Reconnects. It introduces the Great Turning and provides a wealth of exercises to deepen our connection with our world and help us find our capacity to respond to our current global crisis.
For information, see http://www.joannamacy.net/html/books.html
The Great Turning – David Korten
This book shows how humans stand at a defining moment in our history, where we face both the opportunity and the imperative to choose our future as a conscious collective act.
http://davidkorten.com/Books/greatturning.htm
Find Your Power – Chris Johnstone
An inspiring self-help guide to positive vision and inner strengths, this book introduces the Great Turning as the essential adventure of our times, and shows how we find our power to take part in it. See http://www.chrisjohnstone.info
Websites
http://www.joannamacy.net/html/great.html
Joanna Macy’s website, page about The Great Turning.
http://www.permaculture.co.uk/mag/Articles/The%20Great%20Turning.html
Recent interview with Joanna Macy in permaculture magazine, from 2005.
http://coinet.org.uk/perspectives/macy
Transcript of a talk by Joanna Macy about the Great Turning in relation to facing Climate Change, Oxford, UK, May 2005.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=333
Interview with Joanna Macy in Yes magazine, Spring 2000/