Joanna Macy Quotes

Much of the oxygen we breathe comes from plants that died long ago. We can give thanks to these ancestors of our present-pay foliage, but we can't give back to them. We can, however, give forward. When we are unable to return the favor, we can pay it forward to someone or something else. Using this approach, we can see ourselves as part of a larger flow of giving and receiving throughout time. Receiving from the past, we can give to the future. When tackling issues such as climate change, the stance of gratitude is a refreshing alternative to guilt or fear as a source of motivation. ~ Joanna Macy & Chris Johnstone

Gratitude for the gift of life is the primary wellspring of all religions, the hallmark of the mystic, the source of all true art ... It is a privilege to be alive in this time when we can choose to take part in the self-healing of our world. ~ Joanna Macy

By refreshing our sense of belonging in the world, we widen the web of relationships that nourishes us and protects us from burnout. ~ Joanna Macy & Chris Johnstone

Compassion literally means to feel with, to suffer with. Everyone is capable of compassion, and yet everyone tends to avoid it because it's uncomfortable. And the avoidance produces psychic numbing - resistance to experiencing our pain for the world and other beings. ~ Joanna Macy

Walk boldly through your life with an open, broken heart. ~ Joanna Macy

The future is not out there in front of us, but inside us. ~ Joanna Macy

Active Hope is not wishful thinking.
Active Hope is not waiting to be rescued . . . .
by some savior.
Active Hope is waking up to the beauty of life
on whose behalf we can act.
We belong to this world.
The web of life is calling us forth at this time.
We've come a long way and are here to play our part.
With Active Hope we realize that there are adventures in store,
strengths to discover, and comrades to link arms with.
Active Hope is a readiness to discover the strengths
in ourselves and in others;
a readiness to discover the reasons for hope
and the occasions for love.
A readiness to discover the size and strength of our hearts,
our quickness of mind, our steadiness of purpose,
our own authority, our love for life,
the liveliness of our curiosity,
the unsuspected deep well of patience and diligence,
the keenness of our senses, and our capacity to lead.
None of these can be discovered in an armchair or without risk. ~ Joanna Macy & Chris Johnstone

Be ahead of all parting, as if it had already happened,
like winter, which even now is passing.
For beneath the winter is a winter so endless
that to survive it at all is a triumph of the heart.

Be forever dead in Eurydice, and climb back singing.
Climb praising as you return to connection.
Here among the disappearing, in the realm of the transient,
be a ringing glass that shatters as it rings.

Be. And, at the same time, know what it is not to be.
The emptiness inside you allows you to vibrate
in full resonance with your world. Use it for once.

To all that has run its course, and to the vast unsayable
numbers of beings abounding in Nature,
add yourself gladly, and cancel the cost. ~ Rainer Maria Rilke

The refusal to feel takes a heavy toll. Not only is there an impoverishment of our emotional and sensory life, flowers are dimmer and less fragrant, our loves less ecstaticâ but this psychic numbing also impedes our capacity to process and respond to information. The energy expended in pushing down despair is diverted from more creative uses, depleting the resilience and imagination needed for fresh visions and strategies. ~ Joanna Macy

Grace happens when we act with others on behalf of our world. ~ Joanna Macy

Gratitude is liberating. It is subversive. It helps us to realize that we are sufficient, and that realization frees us. ~ Joanna Macy

When you look at what is happening to our world-and it is hard to look at what's happening to our water, our air, our trees, our fellow species-it becomes clear that unless you have some roots in a spiritual practice that holds life sacred and encourages joyful communion with all your fellow beings, facing the enormous challenges ahead becomes nearly impossible. ~ Joanna Macy

Clothe yourself in your authority. You speak not only as yourself or for yourself. You will speak and act with the courage and endurance that has been yours through the long, beautiful aeons
of your life story ... ~ Joanna Macy

In the face of impermanence and death, it takes courage to love the things of this world and to believe that praising them is our noblest calling. ~ Joanna Macy

It's walking the razor's edge of the sacred moment where you don't know, you can't count on, and comfort yourself with any sure hope. All you can know is your allegiance to life and your intention to serve it in this moment that we are given. In that sense, this radical uncertainty liberates your creativity and courage. ~ Joanna Macy

In the past, changing the self and changing the world were often regarded as separate endeavors and viewed in either-or terms. But in the story of the Great Turning, they are recognized as mutually reinforcing and essential to one another. ~ Joanna Macy & Chris Johnstone

Qualities like love and compassion are not just abstract virtues that are the property of saints and adepts. Anyone can develop these qualities in themselves by doing spiritual practices. As the Buddha said, Come and see. ~ Joanna Macy

Out of this darkness a new world can arise, not to be constructed by our minds so much as to emerge from our dreams. Even though we cannot see clearly how it's going to turn out, we are still called to let the future into our imagination. We will never be able to build what we have not first cherished in our hearts. ~ Joanna Macy

This is a dark time, filled with suffering and uncertainty. Like living cells in a larger body, it is natural that we feel the trauma of our world. So don't be afraid of the anguish you feel, or the anger or fear, because these responses arise from the depth of your caring and the truth of your interconnectedness with all beings. ~ Joanna Macy

Future generations will look back at the time we are living in now. The kind of future they look from, and the story they tell about our period, will be shaped by choices we make in our lifetimes. The most telling choice of all may well be the story we live from and see ourselves participating in. It sets the context of our lives in a way that influences all our other decisions.

In choosing our story, we not only cast our vote of influence over the kind of world future generations inherit, but we also affect our own lives in the here and now. When we find a good story and fully give ourselves to it, that story can act through us, breathing new life into everything we do. When we move in a direction that touches our heart, we add to the momentum of deeper purpose that makes us feel more alive. A great story and a satisfying life share a vital element: a compelling plot that moves toward meaningful goals, where what is at stake is far larger than our personal gains and losses. The Great Turning is such a story. ~ Joanna Macy And Chris Johnstone

You don't need to do everything. Do what calls your heart; effective action comes from love. It is unstoppable, and it is enough. ~ Joanna Macy

It is good to realize that falling apart is not such a bad thing. Indeed, it is as essential to evolutionary and psychological transformation as the cracking of outgrown shells. ~ Joanna Macy

We are capable of suffering with our world, and that is the true meaning of compassion. It enables us to recognize our profound interconnectedness with all beings. Don't ever apologize for crying for the trees burning in the Amazon or over the waters polluted from mines in the Rockies. Don't apologize for the sorrow, grief, and rage you feel. It is a measure of your humanity and your maturity. It is a measure of your open heart, and as your heart breaks open there will be room for the world to heal. That is what is happening as we see people honestly confronting the sorrows of our time. ~ Joanna Macy

Because the relationship between self and world is reciprocal, it is not a matter of first getting enlightened or saved and then acting. As we work to heal the Earth, the Earth heals us. No need to wait. As we care enough to take risks, we loosen the grip of ego and begin to come home to our true nature. ~ Joanna Macy

Vietnamese Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh is one of the most beloved Buddhist teachers in the West, a rare combination of mystic, poet, scholar, and activist. His luminous presence and the simple, compassionate clarity of his writings have touched countless lives. ~ Joanna Macy

[A Tibetan Legend]

"There comes a time when all life on Earth is in danger. Barbarian powers have arisen. Although they waste their wealth in preparations to annihilate each other, they have much in common: weapons of unfathomable devastation and technologies that lay waste the world. It is now, when the future of all beings hangs by the frailest of threads, that the kingdom of Shambhala emerges.

"You cannot go there, for it is not a place. It exists in the hearts and minds of the Shambhala warriors. But you cannot recognize a Shambhala warrior by sight, for there is no uniform or insignia, there are no banners. And there are no barricades from which to threaten the enemy, for the Shambhala warriors have no land of their own. Always they move on the terrain of the barbarians themselves.

"Now comes the time when great courage is required of the Shambhala warriors, moral and physical courage. For they must go into the very heart of the barbarian power and dismantle the weapons. To remove these weapons, in every sense of the word, they must go into the corridors of power where the decisions are made.

"The Shambhala warriors know they can do this because the weapons are manomaya, mind-made. This is very important to remember, Joanna. These weapons are made by the human mind. So they can be unmade by the human mind! The Shambhala warriors know that the dangers that threaten life on Earth do not come from evil deities or extraterrestrial ~ Joanna Macy

Action isn't a burden to be hoisted up and lugged around on our shoulders. It is something we are. The work we have to do can be seen as a kind of coming alive. More than some moral imperative, it's an awakening to our true nature, a releasing of our gifts. ~ Joanna Macy

There's a song that wants to sing itself through us. We just got to be available. Maybe the song that is to be sung through us is the most beautiful requiem for an irreplaceable planet or maybe it's a song of joyous rebirth as we create a new culture that doesn't destroy its world. But in any case, there's absolutely no excuse for our making our passionate love for our world dependent on what we think of its degree of health, whether we think it's going to go on forever. Those are just thoughts anyway. But this moment you're alive, so you can just dial up the magic of that at any time. ~ Joanna Macy

In the early Buddhist view, then, a persons identity resides not in an enduring self but in his actions (karma)- that is in the choices that shape these actions. Because the dispositions formed by previous choices can be modified in turn by present behaviour, this identity as choice-maker is fluid, its experience alterable. While it is affected by the past, it can also break free of the past. ~ Joanna Macy

The most radical thing any of us can do at this time is to be fully present to what is happening in the world. ~ Joanna Macy

Women are very different to men, and that hasn't been respected. So when people say there's never been a good woman painter or poet or engineer or whatever, they don't understand that our skills are many simultaneously and men's skills are single. ~ Joanna Lumley

wisdom is common sense lit by imagination." "What ~ Joanna Cannan

Whether art is defined as a representation of or response to reality, it demands an intense engagement with things we haven't managed to understand fully. ~ Joanna Scott

He caught her wrist and pulled her until she was straddling him. His hand smoothed down the outside of her right thigh. Thank you for wearing a skirt tonight. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. ~ Cherrie Lynn

I was a dog in a past life. Really. I'll be walking down the street and dogs will do a sort of double take. Like, Hey, I know him. ~ William H. Macy

Study after study has found that young children who are not constantly ordered around are much more likely to cooperate with simple requests from a parent - for example, cleaning up toys when asked - than children who are micromanaged and controlled much of the time. ~ Joanna Faber

Sometimes the nastiest shit happens behind the prettiest doors, while everyone laughs and smiles and pretends everything's okay. Here's the thing about my world. We're fucked up. We own it. We take care of business and move on. ~ Joanna Wylde

I'm very good at getting up in the morning - so much of my life has been spent on film sets where we start at the crack of dawn. ~ Joanna Lumley

I don't lose my temper. I used to, but I realised I would probably die of a brain hemorrhage. So I've governed myself not to mind about things. I have no road rage or anything like that. Because it's life-shortening. And also, there's no need for it; it uses up energy. ~ Joanna Lumley

I don't think it's irrational or too conservative of me to think, I never want to carry my baby into the county jail ever again.
Is it? ~ Joanna Gaines

A few told snippets of her stories or described the healing touch of her hand, but none knew anything about the girl herself. How amazing, how humble, was this girl who broke herself into a million pieces and distributed them to anyone who had need. ~ Joanna Davidson Politano

When you're someone's property, you're a woman the brothers will die to protect," he continued, his voice softening. "They'll die to protect your kid, too. Don't turn that kind of loyalty into something ugly because you don't like the words we use. Dancer, Marie, Maggs? They're proud to be property, because they know what it means. Nobody forcing them to do anything. ~ Joanna Wylde

Puck said the shittier the hotel, the less likely it was anyone would remember us. By that logic, we were now perfectly safe. ~ Joanna Wylde

I look up to people who succeed in accomplishing their dreams. ~ Joanna Noelle Levesque

How rough your hands still are."
Embarrassed, she made to pull them away, but he held them fast. "Yet never have I longed to kiss any woman's hands as I long to kiss these. ~ Julie Klassen

The Spirit of the Lord is with them that fear him. ~ Joanna Southcott

What! have you no poems by heart, no great songs, no verses from the Bible, no speeches from Shakespeare? Then you have not begun to read, you have not learned how to read. ~ John Macy

Um, Sophie? I have a face, you know, he added, and my eyes jerked up from his stomach. ~ Joanna Wylde

The man radiated power, strength and raw sex. He was the biggest, nastiest bastard in the room – not to mention easy on the eyes – and deep down inside I just knew we'd make beautiful babies together. Too bad I already sort of had a boyfriend…Shade was so potent we'd probably have quintuplets or something crazy on the first try.
You don't even want a baby, I reminded my quivering ovaries.
Jump him! Jump him and ride him like a cowgirl! they snapped back. ~ Joanna Wylde

Measure your worth by the dedication to your path, not by your successes or failures." Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic ~ Joanna Penn

I always knew that 'Growing Pains' was not going to go on forever. I remember thinking, 'I'm going to enjoy every moment of this.' ~ Joanna Kerns

If my heart were not light, I would die. ~ Joanna Baillie

My grandmother is a famous atlas. ~ Joanna Lumley

Only in acting I'm going by Joanna JoJo Levesque. In singing, just JoJo. But the reason we wanted to go with JoJo Levesque is most people know me as JoJo. People that are familiar with me would still be like, 'Oh, that's JoJo.' ~ Jojo

If I could give you anything,
what would you ask me for?"
"I…don't…"
"You know. Look at me. What
would you ask me for?"
Her beautiful eyes opened, her
gaze meeting his directly. The
words came, the ones he wanted to
hear, and he knew they were true.
"Your love."
"Hey, that's easy. Don't you know
you already have it? So it's all good.
Right?"
The little throaty sound of relief
that escaped her as he spoke was
the sexiest thing he'd ever heard.
Her fingers clenched tighter around
the back of his neck, and he
dropped his forehead to hers. "I do
love you, Macy. I love you." His lips
captured hers. "I love you."
"I love you too. ~ Cherrie Lynn

Film work is hard work. It's long days, and quite often quite dismaying locations you have to be in. ~ Joanna Lumley

He is quick to see reason once I strap him down and beat him about the head with it. ~ Joanna Shupe

I definitely don't subscribe to the theory that more instruments, or more vocal tracks, harmony, or double tracking the voice, is a good thing. People do their early albums very stripped down, then each album becomes bloated. ~ Joanna Newsom

I can bear scorpion's stings, tread fields of fire, in frozen gulfs of cold eternal lie, be tossed aloft through tracts of endless void, but cannot live in shame. ~ Joanna Baillie

I said "it is my first language, my mother tongue, my family, my people, my home; it is my heart, my heart, my heart." No one says any of these things. But they should. ~ Joanna Brooks

There wasn't a bit of innocence or purity in him. He was sinful and cynical. Unapologetic. He cared nothing for the world. He just ate its fruits and roamed its wilds and didn't need anyone. ~ Joanna Chambers

What future is there for a female child who aspires to being Humpfrey Bogart? ~ Joanna Russ

I'll tell you this about the Oscars - they're real. ~ William H. Macy

I'm a curvy girl, and I'm a real girl. ~ Joanna Garcia

Talk about putting your money where your mouth is. It's not right. Someone's gotta say it. They said it. I applaud them. ~ William H. Macy

Domestic abuse, also called intimate partner violence, is the systematic suffocation of another person's spirit. ~ Joanna Hunter

I was once kissed on the lips by a giraffe, and I don't think I've ever got over it. ~ Joanna Lumley

Why does He hate the goats so much?'
[...]
'I'm not sure,' I said. 'He only seems to like sheep. ~ Joanna Cannon

Fuck you. Hunter (I decided not to call him Liam anymore - Liam was a nice name for a nice guy, and it didn't fit this bastard at all) glanced at his friend, then rubbed a hand over his face. For a minute he looked tired. Jackass. I was going to laugh at his funeral. ~ Joanna Wylde

I think I'm a spiritual person. I don't really go to church often when services are on, but I like going in when they are empty and quiet, and just sitting there and thinking for a little while. ~ Joanna Lumley

Theories:
*During the off-months for the visitors, which are the on-months for the oysters, are the oysters packed in ice or tinned, and shipped to Paris?

*During the off-months for the visitors, which are the on-months for the oysters, do the serving staff shuck shells?
Or
*During the off-months for the visitors, which are the on-months for the oysters, are the restaurant, and the oysters, abandoned, and the staff laid off? ~ Joanna Walsh

Before I made it big I worked as a dishwasher, washing dishes in this place called Dishwasher House where people could just come in and do whatever they wanted to the dishes and we had to clean them with our hands till they bled. A lot of struggling actors worked there-Downey Jr., Joaquin Phoenix, Damon Wayans, Marlon Wayans, Keenen Ivory Wayans-and we actually all kind of wish we still did. ~ William H. Macy

Tell me "The Subtle Briar" again,' she asked. She knew I would still know it by heart. I whispered to her in the dark.

'When you cut down the hybrid rose,
its blackened stump below the graft
spreads furtive fingers in the dirt.
It claws at life, weaving a raft
of suckering roots to pierce the earth.
The first thin shoot is fierce and green,
a pliant whip of furious briar
splitting the soil, gulping the light.
You hack it down. It skulks between
the flagstones of the garden path
to nurse a hungry spur in shade
against the porch. With iron spade
you dig and drag it from the gravel
and toss it living on the fire.

'It claws up towards the light again
hidden from view, avoiding battle
beyond the fence. Unnoticed, then,
unloved, unfed, it clings and grows
in the wild hedge. The subtle briar
armors itself with desperate thorns
and stubborn leaves – and struggling higher,
unquenchable, it now adorns
itself with blossom, till the stalk
is crowned with beauty, papery white
fine petals thin as chips of chalk
or shaven bone, drinking the light.

'Izabela, Aniela, Alicia, Eugenia,
Stefania, Rozalia, Pelagia, Irena,
Alfreda, Apolonia, Janina, Leonarda,
Czeslava, Stanislava, Vladyslava, Barbara,
Veronika, Vaclava, Bogumila, Anna,
Genovefa, Helena, Jadviga, Joanna,
Kazimiera, Ursula, Vojcziecha, Maria,
Elizabeth Wein

It's hard to be depressed around a ukulele. You just pick it up and you're halfway home. ~ William H. Macy