Dancing with Despair
Recovering Hope for the Healing of Our World
This program is based on the work of Joanna Macy, which blends theory and practice drawn from Deep Ecology, Systems Theory, and Spiritual Traditions. These engaging practices encourage profound truth-telling, allowing us to access our collective courage and creative potential.
Experiential practices, poetry, ritual, music and silence will guide our journey through the four stages of the Spiral of the Work That Reconnects. These practices help us experience first hand that we are larger, stronger, deeper, and more creative than we have believed.
“The central purpose of The Work That Reconnects is to help people uncover and experience their innate connections with each other and with the systemic, self-healing powers of the web of life, so that they may be enlivened and motivated to play their part in creating a sustainable civilization ”
Details
April 15th
10am-4pm
$65 includes lunch
About Your Instructors
Hope Horton, DMA, MS, a background in music, writing, counseling, teaching, organizational management and facilitation. As the co-founder of Sound Accord, Hope and her colleague created and led weekend workshops in sound and energy healing for fifteen years. In the fall of 2011, Hope attended two workshops with Joanna Macy and then collaborated with a small group of people to bring Joanna to North Carolina for eleven days in June of 2012. This deep engagement with Joanna and the Work that Reconnects motivated Hope to participate in founding Hart’s Mill Ecovillage and Farm, a forming intentional community near Hillsborough, NC, organized around sustainability (hartsmill.org). Hope has been most active in governance, introducing and implementing sociocracy as a powerful system for community development and decision-making. She has also been led to serve on the board of Timberlake Earth Sanctuary and the advisory council for Pickards Mountain Eco-Institute, organizations dedicated to healing the human-earth relationship with a focus on young people.
Meg Toben and her husband, Tim, co-created the Eco-Institute at Pickards Mountain as a sanctuary for nature connection, renewal, and healing the human-Earth relationship. Meg has twenty years of experience as an environmental educator, and ten as an executive director, during which time she has learned useful techniques for cultivating balance while keeping a holistic level of awareness. Meg knows and loves the land here deeply, having raised her family on it for the past twelve years. In 2015, Meg was honored with the Piedmont Environmental Leadership Award. Her love for art, ritual, Earth, and humanity inspire her to offer healing space of deep renewal to all who are working to heal our world.
Jodi Lasseter is an organizer, ritualist, facilitator, educator and cultural transformation catalyst with over 20 years of experience building grassroots power with community groups throughout the U.S and abroad. As the Founder and Co-Convener of the annual NC Climate Justice Summit—a multiracial, intergenerational movement-building platform--Jodi utilizes popular education to bridge social divides and promote a life-sustaining culture. She has also worked nationally with the Engage Network and Spirit in Action, and internationally throughout the Amazon Basin with the Amazon Alliance. A native of Asheville, NC, Jodi is a Southern Appalachian mountainwomon and life-long ecofeminist. She has been facilitating the Work that Reconnects since 2002, including convening the leadership team that organized a 10-day Work that Reconnects Intensive with Joanna Macy at stone circles in 2012. Jodi completed her Bachelor's at UNC-Chapel Hill and was a Social Change Fellow at Clark University, where she received her Master's degree in Community, Environment and International Development. Now living in Durham, NC, Jodi spends her free time hiking along the Eno River, singing freedom songs, and playing frame drums.
Limited scholarships available and based on need. Contact Brenna at pmeioffice@gmail.com