Earth Affinity workshop at Tara convergence

"If we wish to stop the atrocities, we need merely to step away from the isolation.  There is a whole world waiting for us, ready to welcome us home." - Derrick Jensen

The "Rock the Gate" convergence, at Tara, was a festival to celebrate the achievements of the "Lock the Gate" campaign against coal seam gas mining in the Darling Downs, and to continue the struggle against this incredibly destructive industry.  This is a struggle to protect land by people who are deeply connected with that land, and it is a struggle to defend the integrity of water sources with which we should all be concerned.  I will write more about the convergence and the campaign later, but for now I just wanted to share my experience of a specific workshop I got to participate in.  This was the one run by Emma Brindal from Earth Affinity.

This workshop, billed by the convergence organisers as "Deep Ecology", was based on the work of Joanna Macy, often known as "The Work that Reconnects".  Also known as "Despair and Empowerment", these workshops encourage participants to fully experience their feelings of grief, fear, anger, etc, about the accelerating destruction of life that we face, either as activists or simply as concerned, connected humans.

Earth Affinity workshops are normally a full day or even longer, but this one was a two hour format.  While it was clear that more time would have been useful, I think Emma Brindal did an amazing job of offering the essence of this work in the time available.  Credit also goes to those who showed up and participated so fully in this healing and transformative process.

While I won't give a run-down of the activities in the workshop, I would like to share some of the general experiences I had while working one-on-one with partners and together with the whole group.  These included:

• Coming face to face with other people who care about the struggle to defend life.  Experiencing gratitude and solidarity
• Affirming joy and sharing feelings of concern about the future.  Discovering these feelings as markers of our origin in the web of life and our deep desire to defend and reweave that web
• Speaking on behalf of other beings involved in the struggle over land, water and coal seam gas.  Hearing a range of these beings speak from the heart about their perspective and concerns
• Thinking BIG about what could be achieved and how to get started
• Discovering other people who think and feel things I thought I was alone in thinking and feeling
• Taking my place in a wider process of transformation, The Great Turning

Come along to the full day workshop in Brisbane on August 6 (check the Earth Affinity site closer to the date for more details.)  This is very much an experiential group process, not a lecture.  Get ready to connect with your beautiful, loving, fellow humans and also to reaffirm and celebrate your connection with all other beings.  And in the mean time, go outside and let life in!