Take Heart: The 5 Vows of the Great Turning with Erin Geesaman Rabke and Leilani Wong Navar

How do we navigate through life when we find ourselves tossed into the uncharted seas of climate crisis, biodiversity collapse, cultural divisiveness, all amid the demands and challenges of our personal lives?

For ancient travelers, having reliable navigation tools was essential to making their voyages.

While they used tools like a compass, an astrolabe, and a map, we need different tools for different times. When we aim to be a part of the Great Turning toward a more life-giving way of being human, we benefit from wise guidance.

We take heart in the reliable guidance offered by contemplating the Five Vows of the Great Turning (a.k.a. The Five Commitments of Active Hope) articulated by our elder and teacher, Joanna Macy.

When asked what one person can really do during these times, the wonderful writer Kathleen Dean Moore replied, “Quit being one person! Get together with others!”

We invite you to gather with us and other like-hearted people to explore the gifts and challenges inherent in relating to these vows. Being in community and conversation about living into the vows can be especially invigorating and encouraging during these times when the foundations of stability in nature and culture are being rattled to their core.

This event is for those of us who refuse to give despair the final word. For those of us who want to do something much more life-giving than lateral violence or shame and blame of others. It’s for those of us who care a lot and who feel vulnerable to distraction, numbness, and overwhelm. It is for those of us who want to participate in the Great Turning in a way that is right-sized for our current energy and capacity and suited to our real lives.

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

Erin Geesaman Rabke is a Somatic Naturalist & Embodiment Mentor; a writer, a mother, and a long-time teacher and group facilitator.

Professionally trained as a Feldenkrais® Practitioner, an Embodied Life Teacher, a Work That Reconnects Facilitator, and a Community Grief Tender, she weaves all of these lineages into her work. Over the past 30 years, she’s been trained in many somatics lineages as well as in the Tibetan Buddhist traditions of Dzogchen and Lojong.

Along with her husband, Carl, she hosts the Embodiment Matters Podcast and the online course Weaving Glimpses. They live in Salt Lake City, Utah, with their 14-year old son, many wily animals, bees, and a wild garden. Find out more at http://www.embodimentmatters.com

Leilani Wong Navar is a mother, an acupuncturist and herbalist, and a dreamworker. With groups, she facilitates the Work that Reconnects and teaches practical wisdom from Chinese Medicine. Leilani hosts Turning Season Podcast, a series of conversations with people around the world taking part in the Great Turning in their own unique way.

Leilani attended Evergreen State College where she studied Political Economy and Holistic Health, and earned her Masters of Science in Oriental Medicine from the National University of Natural Medicine. She is in ongoing study and exploration within multiple lineages of wisdom for the well-being of the landscape of the body and the body of the Earth.