Last week, I was in Sedgefield, Western Cape, as facilitator and participant of the festival Ecolution. A small intimate festival celebrating our connection to the local environment. The festival focuses in particular on the wildlife corridors though the Well Being Sanctuary Land, in connection to wider Garden Route areas. Therefore, amidst other activities of dance, live music, drumming, talks and swims… we planted about 1000 trees, introducing more indigenous species and allowing the emergence and regeneration of ecosystems, in turn rewilding safe and natural passage for more-than-human beings.
Hereunder I reproduce a post by Mariette Carstens, the custodian of the land… And is a photo of her with her fellow being of the collective yellowwood.
I feel very emotional about this post!
It has taken me a few days just to land with and integrate the magic that folded here at Ecolution Festival 2025
This weekend, something extraordinary happened in my life and Well-Being Sanctuary.
Together—with children, elders, dreamers, and doers—we planted 1,000 trees across our sacred sand dune. The first day, 700 trees found their home in pre-dug beds of possibility. The second day, we dug and planted 300 more, each one a prayer for the earth, a promise to the future.
We did this as part of the Ecolution Project, expanding the wildlife corridor that runs through our land—linking Sedgefield and moving towards Keurbooms River, all the way to Addo Elephant Park. Imagine that… a living bridge for birds and all wild beings to roam freely once more.
This was not just reforestation. It was restoration. Celebration. Collaboration.
With deep gratitude, I want to thank:
Butterfly Foundation – you are doing incredible work accross the world. We will continue next week as the South Africa Nomads join us with Travelbase to plant even more trees. This is conscious traveling.
Antony Stone, The Rondevlei Learning Centre and Kula Malika, and the Swartvlei community—for standing with us in this vision.
And to the children of ALL AGES—who laughed, dug, danced, and planted with muddy hands and shining eyes—you are the heartbeat of this movement.
Here’s to joy, to soil, to sacred action.
“To plant a tree is to believe in tomorrow. It is to place hope in the hands of time and trust that love will grow roots.”
My is full
My partner and co-faciltator Simric Yarrow and I inaugurated a Spiral ‘playshop’ including different drama games to embody the Four Stages of the Spiral – Gratittude, Honouring our Pain for the World, Seeing with New and Ancient Eyes and Going Forth-. Again, as with previous new formats we experiences that ritual, coupled with embodied practices AND what has been called ‘Eco-poetic’ languages can intensify reconnection and understanding on more-than-intellect levels… body intelligence at work, fun and pleasure too.
Looking forward to next year’s Festival and look forward to seeing you there too.
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.”
— inWidening Circles
“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.”
The Ocean Pledge NPO, led by Diony Lalieu, gathered a group of eco warriors from Hout Bay’s Disa Primary last month at the iconic Boulders Beach San Parks nature reserve in Cape Town.
It was an honour to facilitate a workshop for these young pioneers from Disa Primary. Although they come from historically disadvantaged families, and facing or witnessing many social challenges in their communities, they have chosen to be with us today, with their monitors from Sentinel Ocean Alliance, who offer educational programmes for the children to learn about ocean conservation, and to nurture their connection to their natural environment.
Diony and I had created a programme that would satisfy their playfulness and at the same time allow them to ask some deep questions about their own relationship to their feelings about the extinction of species or overfishing, plastic pollution, etc…
To kick it off we went on an educational outing to visit the penguins in the Boulders colony in Simonstown and to be guided by a knowledgeable and passionate expert of SANCCOB, who told us how we could help the penguins avoid extinction. SANCCOB recently calculated that African Penguins, endemic to our coast in South Africa and Namibia, are threatened to go extinct by . The students got a chance to meet an inspiring conservation volunteer, as he answered all our questions about all the penguins’ behavioural facts and monitoring tools.
At the end of our tour Ocean Pledge then decided to ‘adopt’ a penguin on behalf of the kids, whereby they will provide enough funds for one individual rescue penguin to be monitored and cared for. Read more about this on SANCCOB’s page.
After that we went to the Boulders Beach nearby for a 60 minute workshop that we jointly facilitated, going around the spiral of the Work that Reconnects. I was impressed at the youth’s interest and capacity to focus and to open up about their feelings about our natural world. This was a highlight for me, as a facilitator of the WTR and I feel deeply grateful for this opportunity.
“In these times in which we live, our feelings of pain and inner suffering are so often undermined and even pathologised. We are told things like: ‘boys don’t cry’, to ‘pick up and carry on’, or to ‘eat a teaspoon of cement’- there is little space for tears. Daily we are overcome with messages around murders, wars, famine, injustice, devastating fires or storms, and, to deal with the barrage of destruction, some of us just switch off – feeling empty is better than feeling overwhelmed, right? Yet, the experience of this pain and suffering stems from a deep compassion and a shared connectivity with all beings. It is precisely in feeling this pain that we can release our fears so that we can make way for the desire to spark new life-sustaining realities.” This is an extract from the Chapter for Children and Teens of the book “Coming Back to Life” by Joanna Macy and Molly Young Brown.
“This deep reconnection to ourselves, our feelings and mother nature was the focus of our work today. After all, the most powerful speakers are the ones that speak from the heart “, said Diony Lalieu, director of the NPO Ocean Pledge, after our workshop on 1st February on Boulder Beach in Simonstown, Cape Town.
And she continues: “Based on work of deep ecologist, Joanna Macy, the students were guided through a 4-staged spiral starting with Gratitude; Honouring our Pain; Seeing the World with New Eyes and culminating in ‘Going Forth’, with an inspired vision of how we can all play our part in building back better.
“Thank you to Gaia Speaking and to our sponsors and partners for making this long-time dream come true.”They are the Sentinel Ocean Alliance and Mission Blue, in partnership with Plum Foundation, Naure Connects, the Table Mountain Fund and the Ocean Family Foundation. “
Here are a few images of the Sacred Music and Dance Festival that Gaia Speaking took part in last week. Participants and facilitators danced and sang, shared movement, poems and prayers, and all came together in a multicoloured multifaceted work of art and soul. It was truly a pleasure to be a part of this co-creation.
The festival, which was born out of a deep love for music, spirituality, humanity, and a reverence for all of life, is non profit and is held in McGregor, a village nestled in the Klein Karoo, 2 to 3 hours from Cape Town. It is a great setting for this festival, where the events are held in two exceptional venues: Temenos – a retreat centre and absolute treasure embraced by the Gardens of the Beloved – and the Wisdom School, at slow walking distance, housed in historical buildings, which have been carefully and tastefully restored.
It was nice to amble around the village and enjoy its scattered and quaint coffee shops and restaurants and then a little bit strange to watch rugby on Saturday night, for the World Cup final that South Africa won.
Rachael and I participated in the opening ritual around the fire, which ended at dusk with a performance from the Zolani choir from Ashton.
Wisdom School Courtyard above and Hall below
Both our Songs that Reconnect circles felt very resonant with the vision of the festival. They were were both held at Temenos, First in the Caritas Library, surrounded by the wealth of knowledge contained in thousands of spiritual books, and then at the very special venue called “The Well”. We are grateful for our participation in SAMAD for many reasons and in particular because we felt a lot of connection with the embodied forms of the Work that Reconnects that Rachael and I practice.
We celebrated and strengthened with powerful songs Coming From Gratitude into the Spiral, the soft sound of sacred water reminding us of the essence of impermanence and flow. At the Well itself, in the centre of the temple, we facilitated the ritual of the Bowl of Tears as we sang the soft chant “Rivers of Tears” to Honour our Pain for the World. Seeing with New Eyes and Going Forth around the Spiral, we sang and danced a little and we shared some words of reconnection too. It is always an honour to provide these offerings inspired by the Work that Reconnects, in our own particular style, and this festival and these venues were very auspicious places to do so. All our events and all those that I had the privilege to participate in were so unique and filled my heart with a sense of appreciation of community. I felt an upsurge of energy and gratitude for all the gifts that we carry and how this fosters in me hope for a more beautiful world for all. Thank you.
As we come together to sing and dance in this way, through sound, movement, meditation and consciousness, we touch something deeply within our beings. In such moments it is the soul which is dancing. In those rare moments of recognising that it is that great Love which is present behind all that exists, one experiences a kind of ecstasy. So it is with the experience of sacred music and dance that brings us back to the unity of community, the unity of being.
This festival is a celebration of all spiritual paths. The time we find ourselves inat present reveals that there is a greater need than ever before to find commonground, to unite and bring peace to the world. By coming together we can learnabout, open to, and sing and dance the unity of creation, while respecting andhonouring each unique spiritual path toward the One. This is a journey of creativity and joy.
Harold Epstein
If you want to join next year’s festival, you can stay connected with the organisers, Harold and Anja, on the following website or facebook:
I enjoyed reading this editorial that I received in my email… And watching this short film about the incredible Irish peat, by the winners of Waterbear’s prize this year.
The young winner duo Swantje Furtak and Frankie Turk are committed educating people about the importance of wetlands through their activist work at RE-PEAT, a youth-led collective that pushes for a future where peatlands are protected. Kudos.
Hereunder is an introduction to the beautiful work by S.Furtak and F. Turk :
Peatlands are some of our oldest living ecosystems, forming and surviving for tens of thousands of years. Many have existed back when our human ancestors were only toying with early agriculture, when we first started forming towns and cities, and – more recently – when we started radically altering our global climate and ecology. Composed of semi-decomposed plant matter (peat) preserved in water, peatlands are like capsules of deep time.
“In Death Is Life” is a short documentary about a community in rural Ireland with a long history tied to their peatland ecosystems. For generations draining and cutting the peatland was part of their local culture. Traditionally, the peat (or “turf”) was cut in the early summer, dried outside and burned as fuel in the cold winter months. This cheap and accessible material also powered their struggle for Independence during Ireland’s colonial rule. However, starting in the 1700s, through a rapid industrialisation process turf cutting became mechanised and happened at a much larger scale.
In a healthy state, peatlands are the planet’s largest terrestrial carbon store (holding twice as much carbon as all the world’s forests), they are hotspots of biodiversity, and have the capability to slow us down.
These unique traits drove us, Swantje Furtak (24) and Frankie Turk (27) to tell the story of the peatlands in Ireland. Coming from different paths, we have both sunken deeply into the topic of peatlands. In a long call in 2021, we started dreaming of the idea to create a documentary series. We started to collect stories of peatland communities across the world – Ireland, the Congo, Latvia, Germany and Indonesia.
Nearly every country on the globe has peatlands, in different shapes, colours and histories. You probably have a peatland near you! And it is like Tommy said: If you allow the peatland to slow you down, it can change your time.
On 20 March here in the Southern Hemisphere we celebrated Mabon, or the Autumn Equinox. Hosted by the Center, a beautiful venue in Noordhoek, we gathered to celebrate and offer our prayers.
Altar created by Luciana do Cabo, with gratitude
Like all sacred times, the Equinox is a perfect time to reflect on our inner spiritual work. Because we are a reflection of the universe surrounding us, what takes place outside must also occur within us.
This time of year, as we move from summer to autumn, is the time of Harvest. The Earth, by this time of year, has given us everything. Fruits, grains, and vegetables. Now, tired and withered, she lies down to rest. At this time, we can give thanks for the abundance of the Earth, and all that she provides. Equally it is an opportunity to reflect on the abundance in each of our lives, and all the things we can be grateful for. It is an opportunity to turn within and to reflect on what gifts, strengths, experiences and skills we can harvest and take forwards with us into the darker months.
What are you grateful for? What life lessons have helped you learn and grow? What can you harvest internally that may be supportive in the coming months?
The Equinox, both Autumn and Spring, is the only time when both the northern and southern hemispheres experience roughly equal amounts of daytime and night-time. These are the days when the sun is exactly above the equator making day and night equal in length. Equinox is a Latin word that means ‘equal night; – It is the time of equal day and night.
Energetically, the Autumn Equinox is a time of balance and pause, a transitional moment between the bright half of the year and the dark half of the year. This time brings the light and darkness to the front together, neither one preceding nor following the other. Spiritual guidance can be taken from this rhythm of nature. The Autumn Equinox is a perfect time to consider and invite balance into your life – shadow and light, inner and outer, masculine and feminine, the dance between ego and Soul.
Take a moment to slow down and listen inwardly. Is there something your body is asking you for? In which areas of life do you need to re-find balance?
To think of the Equinoxes and Solstices in terms of a life, the year is “born” on the winter solstice, matures at the spring equinox, and reaches the prime of life at the summer solstice. The autumnal equinox marks the descent into old age, and, finally, the moment of the winter solstice marks simultaneous death and rebirth, starting the cycle anew.
And so, from a spiritual growth perspective, Autumn is about endings, as reflected in our natural environment, with the trees losing their leaves and plants dying off. It’s all a very natural process. And so the Autumn is also a time to descend into one’s own darkness. Darkness, when ignored and exiled, grows and takes over. But when given the opportunity to be worked with and exposed, provides an opportunity for growth once the light returns.
Autumn is a time to feel into the areas of your life that need to be let go of, consider what no longer serves you, gets in your way, and needs to wither. Remember—we all have leaves, of a sort. For a time, they gather energy unto us, but at a certain point, they no longer serve us. They lose their chlorophyll, turn brown, wither, and must be released. As you watch those earthly leaves fall to the ground to nourish the next generation of nature, consider your own leaves.
What do you need to let go? Are you allowing for this release or are you hanging on to the dead?
I’m so grateful for the opportunity to celebrate these ceremonies of the ‘Wheel of the Year’, an annual cycle of seasonal festivals that were celebrated by our foremothers and fathers. As we find ourselves in the midst of ecological chaos, one of the most potent ways for us to find ways to come back into balance with the earth is to reconnect to her seasons and cycles, honouring these, as we learn to tune in, celebrate and adapt to her natural cycles. Happy Equinox everyone.
This weekend, something extraordinary happened in my life and Well-Being Sanctuary.
Butterfly Foundation – you are doing incredible work accross the world. We will continue next week as the South Africa Nomads join us with Travelbase to plant even more trees. This is conscious traveling.
“To plant a tree is to believe in tomorrow. It is to place hope in the hands of time and trust that love will grow roots.”
“, said Diony Lalieu, director of the NPO Ocean Pledge, after our workshop on 1st February on Boulder Beach in Simonstown, Cape Town.
Gaia Speaking 