When you look at the world as lover, every being becomes precious to you. And the impulse to act on behalf of life becomes irresistible.
—Joanna Macy, World as Lover, World as Self
The Tears of Things Reader’s Guide introduces Buddhist teacher and environmental activist Joanna Macy (1929–2025):
When Joanna Macy traveled the world with her husband, a Peace Corps director, she supported Tibetan refugees in India and discovered Buddhism. After earning a PhD in Buddhism and systems theory, Macy helped create the field of “deep ecology” by articulating “the Work That Reconnects,” a process of group transformation that acknowledges ecological grief and encourages people into collective action. Macy has empowered countless people in her workshops to face their grief at the world’s injustices and act with hope, reminding us that by grieving with others and engaging in collective grief, we can “find strength in their strengths, bolstering our own individual supplies of courage, commitment, and endurance.” [1]
Joanna Macy identifies four stages of work that support our ongoing participation in the healing of the world:
The spiral of the Work That Reconnects maps out an empowerment process that journeys through four successive movements, or stations: coming from gratitude, honoring our pain for the world, seeing with new eyes, and going forth. This spiral … reminds us that we are larger, stronger, deeper, and more creative than we’ve grown accustomed to believing. When we come from gratitude, we become more present to the wonder of being alive in this amazing world, to the many gifts we receive, to the beauty and mystery it offers. Yet the very act of looking at what we love and value in our world brings with it an awareness of the vast violation underway, the despoliation and unraveling….
From gratitude we naturally flow to honoring our pain for the world. Dedicating time and attention to honoring this pain opens up space to hear our sorrow, fear, outrage, and other felt responses to what is happening to our world…. Our pain for the world not only alerts us to danger but also reveals our profound caring. And this caring derives from our interconnectedness with all of life. We need not fear it.
In the third stage, we step further into the perceptual shift that recognizes our pain for the world arises from our love for life. Seeing with new eyes reveals the wider web of resources available to us through our rootedness within a deeper, wider, ecological self…. It opens us to a new view of what is possible and a new grasp of our power to act.
The final station, going forth, involves clarifying our vision of how we can act for the healing of our world and identifying practical steps that move our vision forward…. With the shift of perception that seeing with new eyes brings, you can let go of the need to plan every step; instead trust your intention…. Focus on finding and playing your part, offering your own contribution, your unique gift of Active Hope. [2]
References:
[1] Joanna Macy, “Working Through Environmental Despair,” in Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind, ed. Theodore Roszak, Mary E. Gomes, and Allen D. Kanner (Sierra Club Books, 1995), 257; and adapted from The Tears of Things Reader’s Guide (CAC Publishing, 2025), 14.
[2] Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone, Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We’re in with Unexpected Resilience and Creative Power, rev. ed. (New World Library, 2022), 37–38, 40–41. Macy and Johnstone define Active Hope in this way: “Active Hope is not wishful thinking. Active Hope is not waiting to be rescued by … some savior. Active Hope is waking up to the beauty of life on whose behalf we can act.” (p. 35)
Image credit and inspiration: Sankhadeep Barman, untitled (detail), 2019, photo, Unsplash. Click here to enlarge image. The person lingers in awe, wholly present with the flowers, letting herself be consumed by their quiet beauty, choosing to behold and simply be with them.
Story from Our Community:
I’ve been struggling lately with how to engage lovingly with the world, specifically the country I love, but grace often comes in surprising ways. I recently had my hearing aids tuned up and was told by the audiologist to read aloud every day, because it promotes brain health as we age with hearing loss. So, I’ve been reading Father Richard’s Daily Meditations out loud every morning. What a joy for both my brain and spirit! It’s infinitely better than speed-reading these daily gifts.
—Cynthia C.
