Love is responsibility of an I for a You… in this consists the equality of all lovers – Buber
We are in a time of great change: climate change, political turmoil, pandemic, social/racial justice. Joanna Macy calls the cataclysmic changes of our time ‘the Great Unravelling,’ each of which has a multitude of tendrils into our outer and inner lives. These times call us each toward what Macy names a ‘Great Turning’. The Great Turning of these times hinges between radical hope and the shut-down of despair. During this time, many of us find ourselves somewhere in the landscape of Unravelling and Great Turning. Do you? If so, where on this landscape are you journeying?
These questions will form the container for our upcoming retreat:
How in these uncertain times of pandemic and climate threat, can we pivot toward a trust in life-giving goodness? How do we transform trouble into vision? How do we each gain awareness of the interplay between our relationship to our own personal troubles and those of our world? How do we generate love and compassion for the ‘others’ in our own selves creating the foundation of not ‘othering’? How do we hear our inner call and respond with heart? What is it in our human nature that keeps us from nourishing and protecting and loving all life? What are our biases? How do we trust in our own deep goodness and the goodness of others as the ground which is deeper than suffering, calling us to the love of interbeing?
We see our time as one of evolutionary crises. If we do not rise to respond to the spiritual and ethical call that is resounding, it is a fact that we may well not survive as a civilization. We in our CIL community are blessed to be able to come together to dialogue with our own hearts and with one another to explore these critical concerns, to further our learnings in the areas of trauma and neuroscience, to create personal and group practices to encourage carrying our personal visions of interbeing into our world.
Practicalities:
We will gather for 4 hours Thursday, June 24th – Saturday June 26th. Our time will be 1230-430 EDT each day with a break in the middle.
Alexis will send the Zoom invite on Thursday June 24th. Please send tuition of $250, made out to Center for Intentional Living, to Kelly Byrne Skarupa, 25 N Broadway, Tarrytown, NY 10591.
Suggested Readings:
Julien of Norwich – Mathew Fox
Unbinding: The Grace Beyond Self – Kathleen Dowling Singh
A Wild Love for the World – Joanna Macy
On Tyranny – Timothy Snyder
As is our custom, these books are recommended, not required reading. We hope there may be one book which calls to you as they have to us.
As always, bring your dreams, your poetry, your journals, your instruments, your crayons…
With love and radical hope
Alexis and Judith