What I'm Up To These Days
a personal sharing instead of an essay
This is a very different Molly’s Musings than what I usually send out. Instead of writing a new essay, I want to let you know about four projects that I am involved with, which I hope you will be inspired to follow, join, and/ or support. I promise not to do this again–or at least only very occasionally–so please stay subscribed for future essays on world affairs, psychosynthesis, and the Work That Reconnects.
I would never have predicted that in my elder years, I would be engaged in the most fulfilling and what feels “important-to-the-world” work of my life. But that’s exactly where I find myself–and for the last several years! Here’s what I’m up to these days:
First of all, I co-direct and teach the Spiral Journey Facilitator Development Program in the Work That Reconnects, along with three beloved colleagues: Mutima Imani, Constance Washburn, and our administrative coordinator, Yulia Smagorinsky.
Constance, root teacher Joanna Macy, Molly, & Mutima (Yulia not pictured) This program brings me into close contact with many amazing and dedicated people from all over the world (21 countries at last count) who participate in our six month online learning community, deepening and expanding their facilitation competencies and facing together the enormous challenges of the times..
We are in the process now of interviewing applicants for the next six-month program that starts in September 2024, and I’m very inspired by the people I’ve interviewed so far. Applications close August 15, so I have a few more weeks of getting to know new people and welcoming them into our program. Note: There are still a few openings for the program that begins in September. Learn more about our in-depth training program and learning community—and apply here.
To help people fulfill the prerequisites for our program (at least 12 hours as a participant in a Work That Reconnects workshop and 12 hours anti-oppression/liberation training), we are offering a “liberation” online workshop this summer. More information here. This is a great way to get to know our Spiral Journey team!
Many of our program participants come from low-income countries with poor currency exchange rates, so we have established a scholarship fund to help them. Donations can be sent to this link.
Secondly, I edit Deep Times - A Journal of the Work That Reconnects, along with a devoted and creative editorial team of 9.
Cover of March 2024 issue. We’re collecting submissions right now for the September 2024 issue, addressing how our Work That Reconnects community experiences and participates in the Great Turning. We’re asking people to share their visions and understandings of the Great Turning, its qualities and challenges, as well as their stories of inspiring and supporting people in their work for the Great Turning. Submission guidelines are here. Submission deadline is July 1 (but may be extended to July 15). If you want to write something for this issue, please do! If you can send in at least a rough draft or outline by July 1, that would be helpful. Send your submission to deeptimes@workthatreconnects.org.
Aravinda Ananda, Mutima Imani, Kurt Kuhwald, and I are writing and compiling an “evolving guide” to the Work That Reconnects, with emphasis on anti-oppression and trauma-informed facilitation. We have a contract with New Society Publishers, who also publish Coming Back to Life: The Updated Guide to the Work That Reconnects.
The folks at New Society Publishers are very enthusiastic about our new book that will explore how the Work is expanding and adapting to the ever-intensifying Great Unraveling as well as a global Great Turning to a just and thriving world for everyone. Several Work That Reconnects community members around the world are contributing sections and even whole chapters to the book, so we are raising funds to pay them for their labor. Donations to support this work are most welcome and can be sent to our sponsoring non-profit Interhelp via PayPal.
And last but not least, Jim and I are writing a joint memoir of our life together over the last 65 years (and counting), which we recently retitled “The Landscape of Our Life.”
Jim and Molly in 2017 We started publishing chapters via Substack a few months ago. If you would like to take a look at what we’ve published so far, check it out here. (The previously published chapters appear in reverse order, so read from the bottom up; you may have to scroll down to see the Prologue and Chapter 1.) You can subscribe there to receive further chapters (each 5 to 9 pages), which we publish every two or three weeks.
Thank you for reading all this about my current life and work. I will send out another Molly’s Musings in a couple of months, perhaps drawing on material from the “evolving guide” or from the September issue of Deep Times—or something entirely new!
Meanwhile, please visit my website MollyYoungBrown.com and check out Jim’s books, my books, and other related publications on the Psychosynthesis Press website.