We must turn…
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Posted on June 10, 2007
Filed Under Deep ecology, Ecological hope, Earth spirituality, Inspiration and reflection
Fostering Ecological Hope
Today from Margaret Swedish:
For this weekend’s reflection, I went to the web site of Joanna Macy, a co-founder of a remarkable ‘movement’ called, The Council of All Beings. The Council is a spiritual work that seeks to renew the deep connection of the human with the rest of Nature. Using ritual and poetry, the purpose is to enter into ‘council’ with all beings, 
to restore our broken relationships with all that lives, to seek healing for the deep wounds of our planet caused by the era of industrialization. It is a path towards healing the damage done because of our human alienation from our true roots, which are, biologically and spirituallty, embedded deeply in the ecology of our living Earth.
I knew I would find something there to share with you, and so this poem below by Christine Fry.
The ‘great turning’ is a term used to describe this crucial turning point in the evolution of consciousness as we come to the limits of industrial society, begin to recognize the critical damage that has been done to the living systems of the planet, 
and turn once again towards a way of life that is in balance with the Earth in which live and breathe and have our being. Despite all the bad news we confront every day about the unsustainability of the human venture as it stands right now, it is comfort to know that this ‘turning’ has begun in thousands of places all across the globe.
It is our hope that the project represented by this website/blog will be another expression of, 
and a little nudge towards, this new life-sustaining, and life-giving direction.
THE GREAT TURNING
You’ve asked me to tell you of The Great Turning, of how we saved the world from disaster.
The answer is both simple and complex.
We turned.
For hundreds of years we had turned away as life on earth grew more precarious.
We turned away from the homeless men on the streets, the stench from the river, the children orphaned in Iraq, the mothers dying of AIDS in Africa.
We turned away because that is what we had been taught.
To turn away, from our pain, from the hurt in another’s eyes, from the drunken father or the friend betrayed.
Always we were told, in actions louder than words, to turn away, turn away. And so we became a lonely people caught up in a world moving too quickly, too mindlessly towards its own demise.
Until it seemed as if there was no safe place to turn. No place, inside or out, that did not remind us of fear or terror, despair and loss, anger and grief.
Yet on one of those days someone did turn.
Turned to face the pain. Turned to face the stranger. Tuned to look at the smoldering world and the hatred seething in too many eyes. Turned to face himself, herself.
And then another turned. And another. And another. And as they wept, they took each other’s hands.
Until whole groups of peole were turning. Young and old, gay and straight. People of all colors, all nations, all religions. Turning not only to the pain and hurt hut to beauty, gratitude and love, Turning to one another with forgiveness and a longing for peace in their hearts…
– Christine Fry (October 19, 2004)
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