Reflection on Joanna Macy’s “Climate Crisis as a Spiritual Path”
By: Eva Jahn
There’s a short but powerful video of Joanna Macy titled Climate Crisis as a Spiritual Path that has been part of our Thicket resources since the beginning. And every time I return to it, I’m struck by how she so tenderly reframes our collective moment. Macy asks a question that stays with me: How are we going to live our lives fully—with inner peace, courage, even joy—as we face a world that seems to be destroying itself?
And then she speaks about the energy of life flowing through rivers, forests, and animals that is the same energy flowing through us. And to me that also means that the crisis isn’t “out there” in isolation, but that it is part of our inner terrain too.
In naming the Earth as lover, not simply backdrop or battle, Macy brings us back to belonging. She reminds us that our emotional responses—grief, rage, awe—are signals of deep connection. They matter not because they’re pleasant or productive, but because they carry the music of our kinship with all life.
In the Work That Reconnects framework, she doesn’t ask us to armor up or fix our feelings, but to hear the Earth’s cry within ourselves and let that anchor our care as well as cultivating courage that then is born out of that love. It feels so visceral.
I personally feel drawn to this teaching because it echoes the very intersections I’ve been navigating. The sadness and anger for ecosystems collapsing, for violence enacted against women’s bodies, for cultural rupture and a fierce love and compassion that demands we not turn away. Where resilience is less so an armor, but a deepening rootedness.
Our upcoming Thicket course invites participants into that same spiral. Where we begin not with strategy, but with presence—learning to listen to the Earth’s cry inside us. From that well, we open to shared lament and collective grounding—not to stay in sorrow, but to discover clarity and fierce compassion in its wake.
We’ll move through the spiral—as Macy teaches: gratitude, honoring pain, seeing with new eyes, and moving into the world renewed—not naïve, but lucid. This is emotional resilience reframed—not about “toughing it out,” but learning to bring care, connection, and imagination into these times.
If you have a moment, take in her beautiful wisdom. What a force of fierce compassion and luminous clarity she was.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQAYVKqTkKo
Would love to hear your thoughts!