Celebrating Joanna Macy

 

WATCH • READ • LISTEN • ENGAGE Photo by Adam Loften Honoring Joanna Macy “You are not a separate being. You belong to the living body of Earth. You are the Earth, looking up at the stars. You are the Earth, becoming conscious of itself.” –Joanna Macy On Saturday, July 19th, eco-philosopher, Buddhist scholar, and dear friend Joanna Macy passed away at the age of ninety-six. Undoubtedly one of the most influential leaders of deep ecology, she dedicated her long life to the Work That Reconnects—a body of practices fostering a remembrance of the interconnectedness between people and the greater web of life; and frameworks for alchemizing despair, anger, and apathy towards loss and harm into constructive change and action. Of our current cultural and ecological polycrises, Joanna said, “The darker the circumstance, the more brilliant the invitation.” Joanna’s voice was one of the first we sought in our early publishing days, and she repeatedly offered insight and wisdom over the years through her writing, and as a teacher for our Seeds of Radical Renewal leadership program. In her interview with us, she traced the ways a life-long heart connection with the living world cultivated a resounding ecological awareness within her work, alongside a recognition of what she called “the Great Turning”—the possibilities of societal transformation that exist at the core of our unfolding destruction. “I have a lot of grief for what we’re doing to our world and to the future,” she said, “but I know at the same time that whatever happens, there’s nothing that can happen that will ever separate me from the living body of Earth.” Her exploration of how we might return to this “ecological self” as a way to be of service amid the climate catastrophe was central to many of her books, including World as Lover, World as Self, Coming Back to Life, and Active Hope. Joanna was also a seminal translator of Rainer Maria Rilke’s work. Moved by his contemplations on the entwinement of grief, beauty, and spiritual life, she often quoted a particular stanza from Book of Hours:   I live my life in widening circles that reach out across the world. I may never complete this last one, but I give myself to it. I circle around God, that primordial tower. I’ve been circling for thousands of years and I still don’t know: am I a falcon, a storm, or a great song? Through her work and life, Joanna imparted a way of being that does not shy away from collapse, but listens for what is emergent within it. She reminds us that grief is not a failing, and that to feel sorrow for the burning world is to be awake to its beauty: “In the face of impermanence and death, it takes courage to love the things of this world and to believe that praising them is our noblest calling.”

Thanks Emergence Magazine. Other touching obituaries have been shared by many others who's lives she impacted.

Here's a Substack article which just popped up in my In-Box.

https://drewdellinger.substack.com/p/bodhisattva-of-the-biosphere-a-tribute?utm_source=multiple-personal-recommendations-email&utm_medium=email&triedRedirect=true