In putting this workbook together, we have drawn on inspiration and guidance from our colleague and friend Joanna Macy, whose seminal work around despair and empowerment in the 1980s opened many to the power and necessity of approaching our work for the world from a place that honors and allows our deepest feelings of anger, fear, grief and despair.  

In explaining the despair and empowerment model she says:

We will have to make radical changes in our ways of living, thinking and seeing the world in order to allow human life to continue on this planet in balance with all other life forms and in harmony with the earth itself. The very idea of so fundamental a change is, for many of us, completely overwhelming. For the task of imagining that new life, working together in community is essential.

Earth Circle’s approach to facing these challenges entails participation in supportive groups in which we can break down our isolation and find strength in each other. Joanna suggests that by working in groups we can move through four steps toward transforming our presence on earth.  First, we experience gratitude for our lives; second, we allow ourselves to feel pain for the world; third, we gain a new vision of the world, whereby we recognize that we are an integral part of the web of all life, rather than being separate from “nature;” fourth, we go forth and apply what we have learned in an effort to change the way we live. This workbook is designed as a guide through these steps. 

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