Just Be It: Sounding the Great Turning
Inspired by Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone’s book Active Hope
What if hope isn’t about believing things will get better?
What if hope is simply about choosing to participate in making things better?
In their wonderful book Active Hope, Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone describe three stories unfolding in our world.
Business as Usual, the Great Unraveling, and the Great Turning.
The Great Turning is our movement away from a world of separation, competition, and endless consumption toward a life-sustaining world of compassion, cooperation, and healing.
For me, this is an awakening to unity consciousness.
It’s moving beyond the illusion of “us versus them” and awakening to the experience of “we.”
But this awakening requires practice.
Every morning, my golden retriever Mojo and I participate in a ritual we call Horns for Healing and Howling for Healing.
I sound my trumpet. Mojo joins in with his howl.
We’re not trying to convince anyone of anything.
We’re simply sounding our intention for peace, healing, and unity.
Macy and Johnstone remind us that Active Hope is a practice. We don’t need to know whether our efforts will succeed before we begin.
We simply choose to participate in what we love and value.
Their work describes a beautiful spiral: beginning with gratitude, honoring our pain for the world, seeing with new eyes, and going forth.
This is what Just Be It is all about.
Awakening to the precious moment, acknowledging suffering without becoming consumed by it, and participating in ways that nurture vitality and reduce suffering.
Think about how much noise we make for war, fear, and division.
What if we began making more sounds for healing?
What if, before trying to talk together, we learned to listen together?
What if we began with silence, followed by a shared sound of gratitude for this precious life?
Perhaps the Great Turning isn’t something we have to wait for.
Perhaps it’s something we can participate in right now.
One breath. One tone. One act of loving kindness.
Nothing to prove. Nothing to sell.
Just Be It.
If it fits, wear it more. If it works, do it more.