Coming Back to Life: Practices to Reconnect Our Lives, Our World

Rating:
Summary: Inspiring, universal truths about self, community and world.
Review: Without having to consult a post-modern dictionary, Joanna Macy and co-author, Molly Young Brown give inspiring and heartfelt explanations and examples of their lifework: dealing with the roots of conscious and unconscious pain that we all feel with regards to ourselves, while bringing home the concept of our connectedness to this world. They point out the fallacy of basic assumptions that we can fix whatever problems we create (the fix-it mentality), as well as dealing with resulting issues of burn-out and stress by alternatively doing the "work that reconnects". The dynamic model set forth in this book recognizes the role of community and encourages us out of an antagonistic "us" versus "them" concept which tends to lead us towards short-term NIMBY (not in my backyard) solutions.

In the preface to the book, Joanna Macy writes, "THIS IS A GUIDEBOOK. It maps ways into the vitality and determination we each possess to take part in the healing of our world."