In Memoriam, Continued
Last month, on 23rd August I had the pleasure to hear more heartfelt stories – and the song below – from some of Joanna Macy’s closest friends and family, in a public remembrance hosted by the Purpose Guide Institute online.
I invite you to have a new look at the In Memoriam page of the Work that Reconnects to read more testimonies and discover or learn more about the founder of the WTR.
https://workthatreconnects.org/joanna-macy-in-memoriam/
It felt intimate and generous to learn more about her from those who knew her most and it also held testimony of the impact of her teachings on everyone.
Far from being as grand as the Dalai Lama, or as austere as her friend Thich Naht Hahn was, she was down to Earth and honest with all her feelings, extremely passionate and not shy of her crazy (we all have it though some of us hide it, right?:-)). Those of us who spiral the Work that Reconnects and who knew her direct or indirectly have laughed and cried at her intense capacity to intensely love every being on the Earth, not always in a ‘nice’ way, but always generously.
I am becoming suspicious of guru figures, especially as I am worried lately about the danger oI am quite suspicious of guru figures, especially as I am worried lately about the danger of ‘spiritual bypassing’ taking the focus away from the pressing calls of ecocide. We are most adept nowadays to follow the Western dominant culture and therefore to busily create new solutions that may often themselves become part of the problem, following the same old ‘business as usual’ growth patterns. We need to continually remember to question why we do what we do, and honestly think what we can do differently, each step of the way in this Great Turning we share.
Joanna Macy, though famous, felt like a simple channel of honest, fierce love. She expressed Life through her own powerful heart-mind and her wise words, yet at the same time she had lost attachment to her body and to her own beliefs, swimming skilfully in what she called “the collective moral imagination”.
I have only met Joanna Macy once in person in a break out room and in those few minutes I felt that she could ‘read’ through me. I think she could read love in all its colours, in all its textures and all its manifestations. She could decipher love when present in humans or ‘more than humans’, either in a leaf, or in a song. She could also detect love in the pain that it causes and not only its joys. From the darkest night of the soul, Joanna Macy would be able to bring back the gold. And that is why she said she was sad to leave us – although sometimes she felt like humanity was the captain of a “sinking ship”- for she would have loved (wholeheartedly, with both grief and awe) to be a part of the next chapter of humanity’s adventure, as uncertain as the outcome may be.
We hosted a Song that Reconnects Circle in remembrance of Joanna last month on 12th August in Glencairn. It was as always very connecting to open our hearts and voices simulteneously. And this time was specially moving, as we scattered quotes extracted from some of Joanna’s books: World as Lover, World as Self, Widening Circles, Coming Back to Life, Active Hope. I am sharing them hereunder, for your reflection.
These gatherings online and in person, and all the readings I have done lately as I delve into fresh archival memories, have reminded me yet again – as does the writing of this WTR newsletter loyally each month – how affirmed I feel by the depth and the reach of this moving body of work and the people who work it. As diverse as are the constituents of the beloved moving body of Earth. Always looking for ways to reconnect life, to reconnect to life.
by Joanna Tomkins
QUOTES BY JOANNA MACY: (read during Songs that Reconnect, 12th August 2025, Glencairn, Cape Town)
“Gratitude for the gift of life is the primary wellspring of all religions, the hallmark of the mystic, the source of all true art…. It is a privilege to be alive in this time when we can choose to take part in the self-healing of our world.”:
“In the face of impermanence and death, it takes courage to love the things of this world and to believe that praising them is our noblest calling.”
“Gratitude is liberating. It is subversive. It helps us to realize that we are sufficient, and that realization frees us.”
“Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding… could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles… your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy.”
“it is ok for our hearts to be broken over the world. What else are hearts for? There’s great intelligence in that’.
“Truth-telling is like oxygen. It enlivens us. Without it we grow confused and numb. It is also a homecoming, bringing us back to powerful connections’
‘The heart that breaks open can contain whole universe..’
“To see all life as holy rescues us from loneliness and the sense of futility that comes with isolation. The sacred becomes part of every encounter when you open to it and let it receive your full attention.” – in World as Lover, World as Self
“O you who will walk this Earth when we are gone, stir us awake. Behold through our eyes the beauty of this world. Let us feel your breath in our lungs, your cry in our throat. Let us see you in the poor, the homeless, the sick.
Haunt us with your hunger, hound us with your claims, that we may honor the life that links us.
You have as yet no faces we can see, no names we can say. But we need only hold you in our mind, and you teach us patience. You attune us to measures of time where healing can happen, where soil and souls can mend.
You reveal courage within us we had not suspected, love we had not owned.
O you who come after, help us remember: we are your ancestors. Fill us with gladness for the work that must be done.”
“The future is not in front of us, it’s within us.”
“By inviting in these experiences of interconnectedness we can enhance our sense of belonging to our world. This mode of being widens and deepens our sense of who we are.”
“You don’t need to do everything. Do what calls your heart; effective action comes from love. It is unstoppable, and it is enough.”
“If the world is to be healed through human efforts, I am convinced it will be by ordinary people, people whose love for this life is even greater than their fear.”
Gaia Speaking 