The Work That Reconnects
your pain is proof you belong here
what is it?
The Work That Reconnects (WTR) is community grief work for planetary anguish. Through guided exercises, ritual, song and storytelling, we metabolize our fear, rage and despair into fuel that joyfully sustains the work we're called to do. This alchemy takes place on a journey through four stages on a spiral: gratitude, honoring our pain, homecoming, and going forth.
JOANNA MACY
Joanna Macy, a lifetime climate and social justice activist, developed the WTR over 70 years spent immersed in Deep Ecology, Systems Theory and Buddhist study and practice. She devoted her life to demonstrating how these practices apply to the day to day work of healing our world. This process has been helping many thousands of people for decades, from survivors of the Chernobyl disaster, those who assembled Columbia’s Peace Commission, to grassroots activist movements and communities in the US
our root teacher
my teacher
LYDIA VIOLET HARTOONIAN
I feel so lucky to have Lydia Violet Hartoonian, founder of School for the Great Turning, as my teacher in the Work That Reconnects. She transmits Joanna’s teachings with deep love and reverence, and also through the lens of her own experience. Lydia developed Tending the Bones, a curriculum of ancestral healing and cultural reclamation that has helped me locate my own family traditions within my Swedish, German and Scottish ancestry. As someone who has deeply benefited from the wisdom of other cultures, finding the foundation of my own gives me surer footing when engaging in cultural exchange.
SUPPORT, SOLIDARITY, SOMETIMES MAGIC
In these workshops, we learn to trust our pain as a sign of our shared humanity, our love for this world, and our belonging, to this planet and to each other. The very first time I experienced this work, I felt access to unknown reserves of resilience, courage and joy within me. If the pain we’re experiencing right now is collective, so are the solutions. This is the gift of compassion - if I’m willing to feel your pain, I’m also gifted with your strength.
but what happens?
Layla's Masters in Biz Course is amazing, I doubled my revenue in the last six months! I've also been less stressed and had even more time to spend with my sons. I'm living a dream! If you told me a year ago this would be my life I would not belive you. Thank you Layla!