With wise words, my mentor in this Work That Reconnects, Lydia Violet Farshid-Harutoonian, sings:

“We don’t know what’s coming,
but we never have.
We don’t know what’s coming,
but we never have.
But when you’re standing next to me,
Oh I feel like I can breathe,
So I’ll rise up with you, in a song,
But when you’re standing next to me,
Of I feel like I can breathe,
So I’ll rise up with you in a song.
So I’ll rise up with you in a song.
So I’ll rise up with you in a song.”

When I’m standing next to you, I feel like I can breathe” feels like the sentiment of the moment for me. Come stand with me to practice Work That Reconnects.

In my in-between time I’m giving any attention I can muster to the wise ones: reading Sophie Strand, attending a retreat with Bayo Akomolafe, listening to The Emerald podcast, reaching for the writings of Adrienne Marie Brown and Robin Wall Kimmerer, and thanking my lucky stars for Joanna Macy, Work That Reconnects, and my mentor in this work – Lydia Violet Farshid-Harutoonian.

These humans not only make me feel like I can breathe, but make me feel grateful to be here at this time in history. By sharing their gifts they are allowing me to feel connected to a web of wisdom. This feels like a time for collective wisdom.

What if we get hyperlocal and discover, together, what collective wisdom lives within us? What is dormant within us because we don’t give it time and attention? What could emerge if we sat together and gave it a minute?

May 14, 21, 28 & June 4, 11, 18
Every Wednesday Evening for 6 weeks from 6:30 – 8:00 p.m.
In the woods at Mullet Hall, Cold Spring, NY

The Work That Reconnects is good medicine and we can’t do it alone! We’d love to have you here. As Bayo Akomolafe said: “Modernity is exhausted, let’s meet in the playfulness of uncertainty. Let’s gesture at the poetry of the impossible.” He asks the question: “Could we be a decentralized murmur that disrupts collapse?”

Joanna Macy’s Work That Reconnects provides a framework and a language for practicing a story of interconnection in support of life on Earth. Centering awe and gratitude it provides a way to remember our mutual belonging to the Earth and to each other. It is a practice for becoming unafraid of our pain for the world, cultivating resilience, and remembering our ecological identity. The suffering of humans and the earth are not separate. We are not meant to bear this alone. There is so much awe and wonder offered to us from the more than human world. As my friend Gabriel Meyer proclaimed: “We need an interspecies conspiracy theory!” This works gives us the opportunity to tend to ourselves & our hearts and begin to explore what might emerge when we do. 

“Erin radiates open-heartedness and a lightness of spirit that is essential to this work. She is inclusive, endlessly curious and quick to make connections. She’s also silly and funny, which puts you at ease. Her enthusiasm is contagious and I felt that all in our group felt safe to express themselves and the ideas, beliefs, experiences and depth of emotion that often go unspoken. It was a holding and inspirational space. As a result of my experience with this group, the light that has been burning within me is now brighter, having been fed by the light of others. I am filled with enthusiasm.”

~Lauren

“Erin was an incredible facilitator, and inspired me not just on the days we met, but also to carry a newfound sense of responsibility, urgency, and hope forward in most everything I do. I am deeply grateful.”

~Amber

“I am Erin’s husband, which is, in fact, why I enrolled in a Work That Reconnects workshop with Erin. Nevertheless – despite my skepticism and reluctance -I found the Work enriching and mind-expanding. In my daily life and in my profession, I often feel like I’m swimming upstream. The framework of thought discussed helped me embrace rather than lament that feeling. I heartily recommend this Work to people who otherwise would never do something like this.”

~ Ethan