We join with others around the world in mourning the death of Joanna Macy on July 19. And we join also in celebrating her life and all that she brought to so many of us.

Here is a picture of Joanna when she came to Chapel Hill, September 16-17, 2010, to speak and lead workshops on “The Great Turning” and “The Work that Reconnects.”

Eco-philosopher, Joanna Macy PhD Berkeley, California, was a scholar of Buddhism, general systems theory, and deep ecology. A respected voice in the movements for peace, justice, and ecology, she interwove her scholarship with six decades of activism. Her wide-ranging work addressed psychological and spiritual issues of the nuclear age, the cultivation of ecological awareness, and the fruitful resonance between Buddhist thought and contemporary science.

The many dimensions of this work will be remembered in her books Despair and Personal Power in the Nuclear Age (New Society Publishers, 1983); Dharma and Development (Kumarian Press, 1985); Mutual Causality in Buddhism and General Systems Theory (SUNY Press, 1991); Joanna’s memoir entitled Widening Circles (New Society Publishers, 2000); Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God  (co-translated and edited with Anita Barrows, Riverhead, 1996, 2005); Thinking Like a Mountain (with John Seed, Pat Fleming, and Arne Naess, New Society Publishers 1988; New Society/ New Catalyst, 2007); A Year With Rilke: Daily Readings from the Best of Rainer Maria Rilke  (with Anita Barrows, Harper One, 2009); Pass It On: Five Stories That Can Change the World (with Norbert Gahbler, Parallax Press, 2010); Coming Back to Life: The Updated Guide to the Work that Reconnects  (with Molly Young Brown, New Society Publishers, 2014); In Praise of Mortality: Selections from Rainer Maria Rilke’s Dunino Elegies and Sonnets to Orpheus (co-translated and edited with Anita Barrows, Echo Point Books & Media, 2005, 2016);  A Wild Love for the World: Joanna Macy and the Work of Our Time (Shambala Publications, 2020); World as Lover, World as Self: Thirtieth Anniversary Edition  (Parallax Press, 2021); and Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We’re in with Unexpected Resilience & Creative Power (with Chris Johnstone, New World Library, 2022).

Here are additional ways to connect with Joanna Macy’s legacy: