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The “Yes!” List
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about despair and hope… how do we move from one to the other, how do we not lose hope when so many terrible things are going on — from our own neighborhood to all around the global community. In this age of nearly unlimited internet connectivity, we hear about these tragedies in nearly real time:
More than a thousand people killed in Gaza, no end in sight…
Kids from Central America and Mexico locked up in Texas warehouses…
Thousands of impoverished Detroit residents lose access to their water…
4 Ways to Transform Despair…. And The Patron Saint of Lost Causes
Joanna Macy teaching at Upaya Zen Center / Photo: Roshi Joan Halifax
The most remarkable feature of this historical moment on Earth is not that we are on the way to destroying the world — we’ve actually been on the way for quite a while. It is that we are beginning to wake up, as from a millennia-long sleep, to a whole new relationship to our world, to ourselves and each other.
~Joanna Macy
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A few weeks ago, a piece of devastating news came out: a large portion of the West Antarctica ice sheet has been confirmed to be melting. The consequences of this are huge. Ocean levels across the planet will rise somewhere between 4 and 15 feet within 200 years, effectively wiping out hundreds of seaside cities.
This is no longer a theory, it’s the real thing. And it’s irreversible. As one glaciologist said, “It has passed the point of no return.”
Great Suffering, Great Transformation
This quote comes from a dharma talk I gave at Upaya Zen Center last week, “Practice Makes Imperfect.” If you’d like to listen to the recording, you can find it here as part of Upaya’s generous podcast program.
