Awakening Joy in a Time of Climate Crisis — Virtual
Joy is more than a feeling – it’s a practice that can fuel creativity and resilience, even in the face of climate change. In this 5-week course, we’ll slow down together to honor grief while exploring how joy can open the imagination and expand our sense of possibility. Throughout our journey, we will engage in:
– Mindfulness meditation practices for cultivating joy
– Earth-based practices for holding grief and anxiety
– Creative writing practices for imagining a future we want to live into
– Group discussions for weaving it all together
“Sorrow is a sustained note in the song of being alive. To be human is to know loss in its many forms … Acknowledging this reality enables us to find our way into the grace that lies hidden in sorrow.” — Francis Weller
We’ve all seen the documentary that shows us the world is ending.
On good days, it seems like there is a growing vocabulary of concern, a global response to meet the unprecedented reality of climate collapse. From the promising glow of new technologies to the resounding wake up call of international youth movements, there are resilient pockets of hope if you look for them. And yet, on bad days, even in the wide availability of creative solutions and collective efforts, there is a sharp undercurrent of grief – a foreboding sense of uncertainty and despair … Is it enough? Will we survive this?
Instead of asking what more can we do about the climate crisis or searching for the next frontline of eco-justice, this 5-week series invites participants to slow down and simply tend to their immediate experience — to listen to it and learn from it.
Can grief become an ally? A wild edge of activism? A force that carries us to unexpected fields of gratitude and joy? Could it even be a complete answer to the question of “what to do”? What if grief is not an obstacle, but a gateway that leads to interconnectedness, resilience, meaningful action, and joy?
Join us as we gently begin to explore some of these questions in an ecology of practices designed to root joy in our daily life. Weaving mindfulness, creative storytelling, group discussion, and earth-based practices, we’ll co-create a space dedicated to honoring grief, while nurturing the vital role of resilience and joy.
In slowing down, we might discover that the richest sites of creative wellness grow in the wilds just beyond our deepest sorrow. Let’s practice together.