Take Heart: Embodying the Great Turning

Event Overview

In this 10-week immersion, you are warmly invited to gather with us and other like-hearted people committed to active hope during these times.

A blend of teachings, experiential practices, and community connection, this 10-week immersion is for those who care a lot and may feel vulnerable to distraction, numbness, or overwhelm. It is for those of us who want to become more resilient to despair and more permeable to beauty as we participate in the Great Turning in a way that is right-sized for our current energy and capacity and suited to our real lives. This is a gathering place for those of us who want to do something much more life-giving than shame and blame others or endlessly criticize ourselves.

We gather to support one another in finding our unique, life-giving path through these times.

We intend for this course to be a steady and supportive refuge, a kind-hearted community, and a soft place to land in an increasingly hard world.

The 10-week journey is guided by Joanna Macy’s Five Vows of the Great Turning. As we navigate the uncharted seas of these times, these commitments offer us a holdfast. They help us orient, and they give us ballast. They guide us and help us hold steady. We’ll be exploring how these vows can help, and how we can relate to them as liberating commitments, in a most life-giving way.

I vow to myself and each of you:

• ​To commit myself daily to the healing of our world and the welfare of all beings.
• To live on Earth more lightly, less violently, and more lovingly in the food, products and energy I consume, and my relationships with myself and with others.
• To draw strength and guidance from the living Earth, the ancestors, the future beings, and my siblings of all species.
• To support you in your work for the world and to ask for help when I need it.
• To pursue a daily practice that clarifies my mind, strengthens my heart, and supports me in observing these vows.

Our explorations, embodiment practices, discussions, and rituals will be enriched by live sessions with some amazing guest teachers, including Cynthia Jurs, Francis Weller, Lydia Violet Harutoonian, and Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer. Read more about these wonderful people on our signup page.

We hope the warmth in our circle blows on the embers of your courage and bolsters your heart. The world desperately needs such people. We get good at what we practice, so let’s practice with intention.