Active Hope (revised): How to Face the Mess We’re in with Unexpected Resilience and Creative Power

by Joanna Macy

When people coordinate their actions through a collective thinking process, we can think of this as distributed intelligence.

When our central organizing priority becomes the well-being of all life, then what happens through us is the recovery of our world.

the Shambhala warriors know these weapons can be dismantled. That is because they are manomaya, meaning “mind made.” Made by the human mind, they can be unmade by the human mind.

These dangers are created by our relationships, our habits, our choices.

“One,” he said, “is compassion. The other is insight into the radical interdependence of all things.

the line between good and evil runs through

the landscape of every human heart.

In seeing power as held only by those at the top of a hierarchy, Joe is expressing a view that is widespread and that undermines our capacity to act. When

When power is a possession to be held, defended, and accumulated, it becomes increasingly removed from the hands of ordinary people.

When we respond to a situation in a way that promotes healing and transformation, we are expressing power.

Thinking of courage and determination as things we do rather than things we

have helps us to develop these qualities.

To see the power of a step, we need to ask, “What is it part of?” An action that might seem inconsequential by itself adds to and interacts with other actions in ways that contribute to a much bigger picture of change.

Each individual step doesn’t have to make a big impact on its own, because we can understand that the benefit of an action may not be visible at the level at which that action is taken.

inner strengths

power arising out of cooperation with others.

subtle power of sm...

energizing power of an inspiring vision

“What is happening through me?”

“How can the Great Turning happen through me?”

The concept of emergence is liberating because it frees us from the need to see the results of our actions.

hear our call to action and choose to answer it. • understand power as a verb. • draw on the strengths of others.

co-intelligence, an ability to think and feel with our world.

Experiencing need prompts people to reach out and make contact.

Crisis becomes a turning point when it provokes us to reach out to others.

Networks of mutual support

“social capital,”

groups we feel at home in. • the wider community around us. • the global community of humanity. • the Earth community of life.

There is a big difference, however, between choosing to go faster when speed brings genuine benefit and being caught in a pattern of hurry through habit or demand.

The way out of this trap is to recognize the important function guilt can serve and to honor this emotion as an expression of our pain for the world.

Guilt is the uncomfortable awareness that our actions are out of step with our values.

TRY THIS: LETTER TO THE FUTURE

“What comes before how.”

To remain motivated during difficult times, we need to really want our vision to happen.

difference between static and process thinking.

three practices that can help us catch an inspiring vision.

creating space.

intention and attention.

use of pen and paper.

Part of catching inspiration is finding some way of holding on to it.

“How will I remember this a year from now?”

we need a way of linking our larger hopes with specific steps we can take.

What?

How?

My role?

make a list of things we want to see happen in the world thirty years into the future.

step into a childhood memory.

happy

imagine ourselves standing in front of a huge, thick hedge stretching as far as we can see to the left and right.

observer and to collect information that can be reported back on.