Practices around going forth.
The full stage of the spiral of the work that we connect.
Welcome to our last episode where we look at the possibilities of going forth with new learnings and renewed feelings.
When introducing this chapter of practices,
Joanna Macy writes,
We have come to see with new eyes our inelectable place in the web of life,
Our connections with all beings through space and time,
And the kind of power that is ours for creating a life-sustaining culture.
Now we can use this new vision to discern more clearly the distinctive role we each can play in the great turning.
Please prepare a quiet space and make sure you are comfortable.
You will need a notebook and a pen.
I'm going to read the litany named We Journey Together.
A litany was traditionally a religious text which was read to a public who in turn repeated some of its sections.
In this litany there are four paragraphs with five lines each.
After the first four lines of each paragraph,
Please repeat We Journey Together out loud with me.
If you are not comfortable reading out loud,
Please mouth the words or repeat them in your head.
And on the fifth line of each paragraph,
I will ask you to repeat the whole sentence after I have said it once.
We Journey Together by Joanna Macy In the face of growing darkness,
We journey together.
In the face of ecological decline,
We journey together.
In the face of social upheaval,
We journey together.
In the face of growing uncertainty,
We journey together.
In the face of growing darkness,
We journey together towards the light.
Please repeat with me.
In the face of growing darkness,
We journey together towards the light.
As we search for glimpses of truth,
We journey together.
As we search for signs of possibility,
With me now,
We journey together.
As we search for heralds of a new era,
We journey together.
As we search for angels of hope,
We journey together.
As we search for glimpses of truth,
We journey together towards new levels of meaning.
Repeat with me.
As we search for glimpses of truth,
We journey together towards new levels of meaning.
As we build our world out of chaos,
We journey together.
As we build our world out of shatter illusions of superiority,
With me we journey together.
As we build our world out of our inadequate institutions,
We journey together.
As we build our world out of our unfair sharing of resources,
We journey together.
As we build our world out of chaos,
We journey together towards a new era of justice.
Please repeat with me.
As we build our world out of chaos,
We journey together towards a new era of justice.
As the universe unfolds,
We journey together.
As the universe unfolds through spontaneous communion,
We journey together.
As the universe unfolds through new levels of meaning,
We journey together.
As the universe unfolds through new forms of life,
We journey together.
As the universe unfolds,
We journey together in the great turning.
Please repeat with me.
As the universe unfolds,
We journey together in the great turning.
The following exercise is called callings and resources.
I'm going to read the questions to you,
And after each question I will sound the meditation bowl so that you can pause the recording and write your answer in your notebook.
When you have finished,
Please listen to the next question.
Question one.
If you knew you could not fail,
What would you do in service to life on earth?
Question one.
If you knew you could not fail,
What would you do in service to life on earth?
If you knew you could not fail,
What would you do in service to life on earth?
Here is our chance to pull out the stops and think big with no ifs or buts getting in the way.
If you knew you could not fail,
What would you do in service to life on earth?
Question two.
In pursuing this vision,
What particular project do you feel called to undertake?
In pursuing this vision,
What particular project do you feel called to undertake?
Please write this question in your notebook.
It can be a new direction,
In a work you're already doing,
Or something entirely new.
Here's your chance to get specific.
Think in terms of what could be accomplished or well underway in a year's time.
In pursuing this vision,
What particular project do you feel called to undertake?
Question number three.
What resources,
Inner and outer,
Do you now have that will help you do that?
What resources,
Inner and outer,
Do you now have that will help you do that?
Inner resources include talents and strength of character,
As well as knowledge and skills you've acquired.
External resources include relationships,
Contacts,
And networks you can draw on.
Not to forget babysitters,
Rich relatives,
Computer savvy friends,
As well as your location,
Employment,
Assets,
Money,
Etc.
What resources,
Inner and outer,
Do you now have that will help you do that?
Question number four.
Now what resources,
Inner and outer,
Will you need to acquire?
What resources,
Inner and outer,
Will you need to acquire?
To follow your calling,
What you need to learn and get,
This can run from assertiveness training,
To grants,
To contacts within organizations,
And the support that these organizations can give you.
Now what resources,
Inner and outer,
Will you need to acquire?
Question number five.
How might you stop yourself?
What obstacles might you throw in your way?
We all have familiar patterns of self-doubt and sabotage.
How might you stop yourself?
What obstacles might you throw in your way?
Question six.
How will you move through or around these obstacles?
How will you move through or around these obstacles?
Questions number seven and the last question.
What can you do in the next week?
No matter how small the step,
If only a phone call,
That will move you along this path.
What can you do in the next week that will move you along this path?
I hope this exercise has helped to bring clarity to your callings and to bring attention to those that you can act on immediately,
Isolating those more simple intentions from the overwhelm of larger lifelong purposes and goals.
It also helps sometimes to shed light on the resources that we didn't realize we already had at hand.
In a workshop environment you would have shared these answers with another person who would have taken notes for you.
In this case please read your notes again a few times in the next few weeks.
Accountability is important but also please remember to be gentle with yourself after these reflections.
I want to thank you for being an activist in the Great Turning.
Thank you for following this podcast.
After listening to these readings from the book Coming Back to Life by Joanna Macy and Molly Young-Brown,
I trust that you feel some renewed hope and that you feel able to hear the grief that overcomes you when you think of the world.
I also hope that you feel more connected to your greater ecological body and to the large community of body satvas who like you are preparing for the Great Turning in all corners of the planet.
Before leaving I also want to thank the Great Web of Life for its connectedness and abundance.
The authors who wrote this book and the authors of the quotes therein and the ease of digital platforms for the sharing of the work.
Thank you for listening.
This is Gaia speaking.
