A Reflection on the Wisdom of Active Hope

A Reflection on the Wisdom of Active Hope

Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone published Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We’re in with Unexpected Resilience & Creative Power in 2012. Since then, their pioneering work has grown more relevant as social and environmental crises intensify and activism rises.  Macy was a renowned scholar of systems theory and deep ecology who passed away last summer at the age of 96. Johnstone is a specialist in addiction recovery, behavior change, and the psychology of resilience.

Wendy Naughton, a reader of The Leaflet, offers her reflection on the power and practice of Active Hope.

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Most of us, especially readers of The Leaflet, care.

The vast majority of us want polar bears (and other threatened species) to thrive. We wish for stable sea levels, healthy forests, and manageable weather patterns, and we are deeply discouraged by constant news to the contrary.

Even with the best analysis, strategies, and/or tips about what can be done to reverse undesirable social and ecological trends, figuring out where to start can paralyze. We feel overwhelmed, believing our efforts won’t matter. At other times, we act but become disheartened, feeling ineffective or unheard.

How do we stay true to our call to act when the future appears so bleak?

Macy and Johnstone offer a way to resolve this tension through Active Hope. As they describe it, Active Hope is a skill, a practice, and a choice a person can make, even when the desired outcome seems murky, unlikely, and maybe even impossible. They frame it as intention: “Since Active Hope doesn’t require our optimism, we can apply it even in areas where we feel hopeless. The guiding impetus is intention; we choose what we aim to bring about, act for, or express. Rather than weighing our chances and proceeding only when we feel hopeful, we focus our intention and let it be our guide.” (Page 5)

In their framework for Active Hope, Macy and Johnstone describe three “stories of our time,” which they call 1) Business as Usual, 2) The Great Unraveling, and 3) The Great Turning. They illustrate these stories through Elly, a woman who says she’s spent much of her early adult life in the first two narratives.

I relate to Elly. Over the past 20 years, I’ve often felt torn between two incompatible worlds—in one focusing on day-to-day demands, maintaining status quo, and proceeding as though the future will be the same as the present (Business as Usual), and in the other, painfully aware that humanity’s reliance on fossil fuels has catastrophic consequences for all species on Earth, including our own (The Great Unraveling).  At times, I’ve even dubbed myself “Wet-Blanket Wendy,” as I try to bridge the divide between these two worlds by sharing my concern, pain, and/or prognostications with friends and family.

But Macy and Johnstone offer a third narrative: The Great Turning, which they cast as “the essential adventure of our time” and “the transition from a doomed economy of industrial growth to a life-sustaining society committed to the recovery of our world.”  (Page 27)  

The Great Turning hinges on Active Hope; it is choice and agency: Individuals turn up to work for their desired outcomes, they turn away from old ways that cause harm, and they turn toward new philosophies, understandings, and ways of doing things to help themselves and the world around them flourish.  Macy and Johnstone invite us to live and act with intention and choose an affirming, authentic path—regardless of odds or outcome.

Active Hope introduces a framework for integrating The Great Turning into our daily lives. The process is called the Work That Reconnects, which are practices that guide people through a spiral journey of four phases: 1) Coming from Gratitude, 2) Honoring Our Pain for the World, 3) Seeing with New Eyes, and 4) Going Forth.

“The spiral is a source we can come back to again and again for strength and fresh insights” (Page 37) and “every time we move through the four stations, we experience them differently or more fully.” (Pages 38-39)

Recently, I read Active Hope and completed the spiral journey as part of a book club. We met on four consecutive Monday nights, focusing on the readings and practices for one phase each week. In all honesty, I did find this process to be transformative, and I have experienced shifts both in outlook and action because of the Work That Reconnects. Below, I’ll highlight a few elements from each phase that influenced my perspective.

Coming from Gratitude
Active Hope framed gratitude as a source of well-being, trust, and generosity, and this resonated with me. More impactful, however, was the evidence that consumerism—and the pursuit of wealth as an end in itself—correlates with higher rates of dissatisfaction and depression. Gratitude, then, is more than simply looking on the bright side; it is a powerful defense against toxic messages of a growth-driven culture that tell us we don’t have enough and that we are not enough.

Honoring Our Pain for the World
I’ve spent much of my adult life struggling with pain and angst over The Great Unraveling. Honoring Our Pain for the World clarified two ideas for me. First, it made the subtle distinction between ego-driven suffering and genuine suffering of our world. This helped me recognize my propensity to get caught up in trying to control outcomes or wallow in indignation/resentment over not being heard. Second, the call to honor (not face or battle) our pain carries a simple and powerful message that pain associated with caring for our world is legitimate, deserving of recognition and validation. I found these insights to be incredibly freeing.

Seeing with New Eyes
These chapters are rich with allegories and diverse cultural perspectives that illustrate belonging and interconnectedness within the world and reframe concepts like power and time. After reading this section—particularly after a book club activity in which I was asked to imagine what Gaia (or Mother Earth) would convey to me in a letter*—I felt grounded in affirming messages of interconnection and reciprocity that I could offer both myself and others. I saw a meaningful path forward, away from the unproductive oscillation between Business as Usual and The Great Unraveling, and toward The Great Turning.

Going Forth
“When we see with new eyes, we recognize how every action has significance, how the bigger story of The Great Turning is made up of countless smaller stories of communities, campaigns, and personal actions” (Page 196). For the past several weeks (since reading Active Hope and completing the spiral journey with my book club), I’ve included “gratitude” on my daily to-do list—and I have, in fact, spent a few minutes each day listing about 10 reasons to be grateful. This practice has enhanced my awareness of people, experiences, abilities, and confluences that nurture a better way of being in the world. As I go forth, the practice inspires me to put my own small contributions out into the universe… such as sharing this reflection of my experience with you, The Leaflet readers.

Wendy Naughton, PhD, conducted her doctoral research on air quality and now teaches chemistry at Minneapolis Community and Technical College. Outside the classroom, she enjoys biking, playing piano, walking her dog, and spending time with friends and family.

*I had only a couple hours between work and the 3rd meeting of the book club - just enough time to finish up the reading assignment and eat dinner.  Then, I remembered there was also a writing assignment for that week - to compose a letter to myself from Gaia (Mother Earth).  Reluctantly, I sat down to my notebook, to scratch something out in the remaining few minutes.  My reluctance was 85% feeling the time crunch, and 15% a feeling of dread: What would Mother Earth say to me?  It was the same kind of dread I felt as a child when I’d done something wrong or made a mistake and had to talk with a parent or teacher.

I cleared my mind–getting ready to compose the letter–and just before starting, I said to myself, “Mother Earth wouldn’t be petty or hold a grudge.  Mother Earth would be loving,” and then I quickly jotted something down.

Later, when I read the letter out loud to my small group at the book club, it was as if I was reading/hearing it for the first time:

Dear Wendy,

You have everything you need.  There is abundance around you at all times. 
Let go of your fears of not having enough or about losing out.  All living and nonliving parts of me (of the whole) exist together to care for us.  You are part of us. 
Feel the connection, and look for reciprocity. 
See how you fit, as both cared for and caretaker? 
Embrace your unique roles and contributions, and trust in the incomprehensible, beautiful sum that together we are.

Love, Mother Earth

My reaction to the letter: “Whew!  That felt good - what a relief!”