July Newsletter

Dear WTR Network family and friends,

We’ve been feeling a strengthening and deepening of the Work recently. So many of us, from all around the world, have joined in virtual space – but “real” time – meeting new people in Spiral workshops and trainings, and learning from each other in webinars. It’s been a fruitful time for the Work, even as the time has been fraught with troubles for so many of us. We’re grateful to share this journey with each of you. 

As we seek new opportunities to venture out and connect–with loved ones, as well as strangers–we find ourselves longing to be together in new, more meaningful ways. We’ve learned to navigate the unknown, to cross the dimensions of time and space to join together in this brave, new, virtual world. Whether as workshop participants seeking the Work for the first time, as seasoned virtual facilitators, or for those spreading their facilitation wings for the first time, in so many ways, we will never return to business as usual.   

It’s rare to have an opportunity to be with Joanna Macy and reflect anew on the wisdom she has been distilling and offering for so many years. The latest On Being podcast features Joanna Macy and Anita Barrows, celebrating their new translation of Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet. The recording is also featured on Emergence Magazine’s podcast. The poems will be familiar to those of you who have delved into Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God (translated from the German by Joanna and Anita Barrows, with German text included).

It is a joy to hear Joanna explore familiar themes with her treasured friend Anita. They reflect together on solitude and relationship, gratitude and grief, and falling in love with the world all over again, even as we mourn so much that we are losing. Their conversation is a gift for this moment.

Joanna Macy’s work continues to live through the worldwide community she fostered for so many years, through those who facilitate the Work, and through those whose personal practice of the Work That Reconnects informs their work in their communities. Thank you Joanna!

Yours in the Great Turning,

WTR Network Weavers and Staff