I learned of Joanna Macy through one of my new favorite podcasts, Being, which explores ethics, faith and ideas. She’s a philosopher of ecology, a Buddhist scholar, and a translator of the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke. She also worked for the CIA in Germany and lived in India, caring for Tibetan refugees. She has lived the full and varied kind of life that many can only hope to lead by age 81.

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In her interview with Krista Tippett, Macy notes that we are at a tipping point, where we can either revolutionize the way society works in an effort to heal the world, or continue to plunder and destroy it. She calls this The Great Turning.

In speaking about this, she reads one of the poems that she translated for A Year With Rilke:

Dear Darkening Ground

Dear darkening ground,
you’ve endured so patiently the walls we’ve built,
perhaps you’ll give the cities one more hour

and grant the churches and cloisters two.
And those that labor—let their work
grip them another five hours, or seven,

before you become forest again, and water, and widening wilderness
in that hour of inconceivable terror
when you take back your name
from all things.

Just give me a little more time!
I want to love the things
as no one has thought to love them,
until they’re worthy of you and real.

(MP3 of Macy’s reading)

She follows this with the sentiment that we don’t need to be constantly hopeful for a brighter future — the important part is being aware and present now.

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I heard this bit of the podcast through headphones while walking across the rocks and through the woods near the fjord. Hearing these words in that setting highlighted both the sorrow and beauty of our relationship with the earth, and nearly brought me to tears.

We truly are at a pivotal point that, as Macy says, is exciting if not also exhausting in its potential to go either toward ruin or rejuvenation.

I have felt this acutely myself over the past year, and have had an increasing sense of urgency about the need to be connected with and contribute to the world. I have been doing this the admittedly easiest way possible by donating to a number of non-profits, most centered around education. There are hundreds of worthy causes to give to, but, to me, one of the major threats to our planet is misinformation and the soft minds that soak it up. We need to do what we can to make sure children in the generations below us have opportunities to acquire the critical thinking and general knowledge and wisdom needed to take care of themselves and their version of Earth.

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Just as important is making a commitment to educate myself, and find more ways to apply my time and resources to tipping the scales in the direction of rebirth. It’s just too important to ignore.

If you have other world-healing ideas and resources to share, I invite you to post them in the comments!