Hello everyone!
It’s been a while since the last Heart & Soul Bulletin – a whole summer in fact. Revitalised by holidays, inspiring Transition events and the glorious September weather, the Heart & Soul busy bees are ready for a new season of cross-pollination of ideas and nourishing gatherings.
Let’s start with dates for our diaries:
Tuesday 7th October, 7.30 to 9.30 pm at TTT’s office
(43 Fore Street): General Meeting of the Heart & Soul group.
Sunday 11th October, 1 to 5 pm at Bowden House, near Totnes
Exploring the Ecological Self – a Work that Reconnects workshop with pat Fleming and Toni Spencer
Sunday 8th November, 2 to 5 pm at Bowden House, near Totnes
Connecting deeper to our bodyselves and others, an experiental movement workshop with Sky Chapman
Sunday 11th December, 1 to 5 pm at Foxhole, Dartington
Exploring Deep Time, Reclaiming the Future – a Work that Reconnects workshop with Kim Clancy and Toni Spencer
More details on the workshops will be mailed out separately but you can contact Annie (a.l@zen.co.uk or 01626 821511) or Amanda (01803 866530) for bookings and information.
The general meeting on October 7th is free and open to all. Facilitated by Rosie Bell and Sophy Banks, it will be a forum to share our views. The topic is:
Heart & Soul EDAP – How was it for you?
The Energy Descent Action Pathways document for Transition Town Totnes will soon reach the printer. Bringing it together was quite a job – especially for Jacqui, the project coordinator, but also for others who contributed.
This meeting offers a chance to review the Heart & Soul section of EDAP – the process of creating it, the contents of the latest version – and to explore how having an EDAP document might reshape the Transition Town Totnes project. Should we just implement what we have in the document? Do we carry on as before?
The EDAP has grown and shed many skins in the past few months and the latest draft version is available on http://www.totnes.transitionnetwork.org/edap/draftplan. The Heart and Soul section, written by Sophy and Rosie with some inputs from others and material drawn from past workshops, is called “Inner Transition”. It is currently getting a final edit from Jacqui and Rob. There is also a separate Community section, which received a light edit from Sylvia.
Don’t worry if you haven’t read much or any of the EDAP! Come along to the meeting to discuss how Heart and Soul might relate to the Transition vision of energy descent, or any other relevant topic.
For afters: an on-line version of the whole TTT EDAP will be launched with a fanfare on Saturday 24th October, 4 to 8 pm, at the Civic Square. A shorter printed version will follow in November.
The other key event of the past weeks has been the visit by Joanna Macy, organised by Heart & Soul. This amazingly youthful 80-year-old eco-philosopher has inspired a great number of activists, thinkers and seekers by her deep qualities of heart and mind and her ability to connect the fields of social action, ecology, psychology, spirituality, science and the arts. She knows how to galvanize an audience and the crowd gathered at St John’s on September 23rd to discover “The Hidden Promise of our Dark Age” was no exception.
Joanna explained that “as we free ourselves from the delusions and dependencies bred by the industrial growth society, something wonderful can happen and we may find the wild power of our creativity and solidarity”. She gave us many pointers to a path of imagination, joy and courage. Earlier in the evening, Glorius Chorus had extolled the virtue of love through a song and Rob had explained the importance of compassion and wisdom, so we felt all set to re-energise our Transition spirit!
One of Joanna Macy’s main offerings is “the Work that Reconnects” – a profound and playful process that brings about individual and collective empowerment to heal the world – and on September 13th we had our first taster of this in a workshop, with film and discussion, lead by Pat Fleming. This was a highly enjoyable afternoon which heralded the current wave of inspiration for the Work.
Pat will be facilitating with Toni Spencer the 11th October workshop on “Exploring the Ecological Self”. The term was coined by Arne Naess, founder of the Deep Ecology movement, to describe our wider sense of identity in a world of interconnectedness. The workshop will be very practical, with discussion and exercises indoors and outside. As Toni explains: “When we connect with a wider sense of the world and our place within it, we can come closer to our authentic leadership within the web of life. This gives us fresh energy, enthusiasm and clarity to act”.
Pat and Toni are both very experienced group facilitators, particularly in the Work that Reconnects, and have worked closely with Joanna Macy. Pat lives on Dartmoor and founded Moor Poets; she is a writer, a researcher, a business adviser and an organic grower specialising in medicinal plants. Toni is equally multi-skilled. She is Course Leader for the Certificate in Education for Sustainability at Schumacher College and a facilitator at Embercombe.
In November we are invited to get a taste for a process which is not within the Work but complements it very well: an experiential movement workshop at Bowden House with Sky Chapman, trained in Body Mind Centering and Contact Improvisation. More information will be sent nearer the date.
The December Work-that-Reconnects workshop on “Deep Time – Reclaiming the Future” will help us attune to ecological rhythms and nourish our connection with past and future generations, thus refreshing our spirits and nourishing our minds. This will be facilitated by Toni Spencer and Kim Clancy. Kim teaches English Literature and creative writing and is the Coordinator of events at Sharpham Centre. She too is fully trained in the Work that Reconnects.
The plan is to continue in 2010 with more workshops to further explore the process and get more deeply engaged with it, as these holistic teachings are one of the core underpinnings of the Transition movement.
If you are interested in learning more about the Work, the best book to read is “Coming Back to Life – Practices to Reconnect our Lives, our World” by Joanna Macy and Molly Young Brown. Devon Libraries hold at least one copy, which can be ordered anywhere. A DVD of The Work that Reconnects by Joanna Macy is available to rent/borrow from Drift Record Shop – by donation, through the TTT scheme.
You might also be interested in “A Council of all Beings” workshop run by Wildwise on November 11th-12th and lead by Pat Fleming and Chris Salisbury (www.wildwise.co.uk/council-of-all-beings.html). This is a colourful and dynamic part of the Work intended to help us rediscover our ‘deep ecology’ – our dance with the myriad species and landscapes of the Earth. Pat helped create this process and wrote with Joanna Macy and others “Thinking like a Mountain – Towards a Council of all Beings”, also recommended.
If you’ve missed Joanna’s talk (or loved it) and want a short taster of her thinking, you can read the last page of this Bulletin. If you’re longing for something quite different, don’t worry: in 2010 it is planned to offer workshops on a range of other themes and practices relevant to the Heart and Soul of Transition. Suggestions, and perhaps practical help, are very welcome.
The Quakers have sent an announcement about their national week: they are hosting open evenings of discussion and reflection, and the theme of Simplicity will be tackled on Wednesday 14th October, 7.30 to 9 pm. You could bring along something that represents simplicity for you. Refreshments will be provided half an hour before as well as after the event. Amanda is quoted in this week’s Totnes Times: “We feel that the insights, way of worship and traditions of Quakerism along with other spiritual practices have something to offer to our Transition town. Local Quakers are interested to explore with others the common ground and diversity of approaches that may be particularly needed at this time”.
To round off this Bulletin, here is Joanna Macy’s five-point advice for “the Great Turning” towards a life-sustaining society:
1. Come from gratitude
To be alive in this beautiful, self-organizing universe – to participate in the dance of life with senses to perceive it, lungs that breathe it, organs that draw nourishment from it – is a wonder beyond words. Gratitude for the gift of life is the primary wellspring of all religions, the hallmark of the mystic, the source of all true art. Furthermore, it is a privilege to be alive in this time when we can choose to take part in the self-healing of our world.
2. Don’t be afraid of the dark
This is a dark time, filled with suffering and uncertainty. Like living cells in a larger body, it is natural that we feel the trauma of our world. So don’t be afraid of the anguish you feel, or the anger, or fears, for these responses arise from the depth of your caring and the truth of your interconnectedness with all beings. To suffer with is the literal meaning of compassion.
3. Dare to vision
Out of this darkness a new world can arise, not to be constructed by our minds so much as to emerge from our dreams. Even though we cannot see clearly how it’s going to turn out, we are still called to let the future into our imagination. We will never be able to build what we have not first cherished in our hearts.
4. Roll up your sleeves
Many people don’t get involved in the Great Turning because there are so many different issues, which seem to compete with each other. Shall I save the whales or help battered children? The truth is that all aspects of the current crisis reflect the same mistake, setting ourselves apart and using others for our gain. So to heal one aspect helps the others to heal as well. Just find what you love to work on and take joy in that. Never try to do it alone. Link up with others: you’ll spark each others’ ideas and sustain each others’ energy.
5. Act your age
Since every particle in your body goes back to the first flaring forth of space and time, you’re really as old as the universe. So when you are lobbying at a politician’s office, or visiting your local utility, or testifying at a hearing on nuclear waste, or standing up to protect an old grove, you are doing that not out of some personal whim, but in the full authority of your 15 billion years.
Let’s continue rolling up our sleeves! See you soon.
