The following is quoted from joannamacy.net:

"The Great Turning is a name for the essential adventure of our time: the shift from the industrial growth society to a life-sustaining civilization.

"The ecological and social crises we face are inflamed by an economic system dependent on accelerating growth. This self-destructing political economy sets its goals and measures its performance in terms of ever-increasing corporate profits--in other words by how fast materials can be extracted from Earth and turned into consumer products, weapons, and waste.

"A revolution is underway because people are realizing that our needs can be met without destroying our world. We have the technical knowledge, the communication tools, and material resources to grow enough food, ensure clean air and water, and meet rational energy needs. Future generations, if there is a livable world for them, will look back at the epochal transition we are making to a life-sustaining society. And they may well call this the time of the Great Turning. It is happening now.

"Whether or not it is recognized by corporate-controlled media, the Great Turning is a reality. Although we cannot know yet if it will take hold in time for humans and other complex life forms to survive, we can know that it is under way. And it is gaining momentum, through the actions of countless individuals and groups around the world. To see this as the larger context of our lives clears our vision and summons our courage."

In 2006 I had the great good fortune to attend a weekend workshop with buddhist scholar, deep ecologist and systems theorist Joanna Macy at the Chapin Mill Buddhist Retreat Center in Batavia, New York along with my partner Sally. To say that the experience was enriching, inspiring and empowering would be to sell it short. It was, in fact, one of the most extraordinary experiences of my life, and has led to a close friendship with Joanna. I later attended another week-long workshop near Louisville, Kentucky (along with Sally and my daughter Alison), then in 2008 spent an incredible week at the Rowe Camp and Conference Center with Joanna and thirty-five other completely amazing people, and finally, with the help many remarkable and dedicated people, brought Joanna to my home-town of Guelph Ontario for a fantastic 5-day workshop. Among the wealth of inspiration that I took home from those workshops was the desire to contribute something, however small, of my own talents to the efforts of those many people around the world who are working to bring about The Great Turning.

To this end, I have embarked on a musical project (for which I don't actually have a name yet, but that'll come) which actually started while I was at the Guelph retreat. Saturday night, after a wonderful evening of songs and stories -- at which my partner Sally and I performed Peter Mayer's beautiful song "Holy Now" (Youtube video of Peter Mayer live here) -- I sat down in my room with my guitar and played for about an hour, as a new composition, almost fully-formed, poured out of me. My intention is that this will form the nucleus of a larger project that I hope to complete over the next few months. Stay tuned.

This just in: Joanna is coming back to Guelph in May, 2011, this time for a 10-day intensive workshop, aimed at people who already have some exposure to Joanna's powerful experiential methodology, The Work That Reconnects. The first two days will be a mini-workshop that will serve as an introduction to the work, and is open to anyone who would like to know more, and get a taste of what it's all about. For more information, see Sacred Wisdom Centre, in Guelph. For a wonderful introduction to the Work That Reconnects, I recommend Joanna's books Coming Back to Life, and World as Lover, World as Self: A Guide for Living in Turbulent Times. A more scholarly, but still fascinating book on the theory of living systems is Mutual Causality in Buddhism and General Systems Theory: The Dharma of Natural Systems. All are available through Amazon, or if you live in Guelph, from The Bookshelf.