Coming Back to Life
a review by Ron Mader

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Bothered by environmental problems in the world? There are enough reasons to go around -- from inventories of natural disasters, corruption, global warming, species extinction, urban crime, etc. From green-washing to doom-saying, environmental communication is a veritable minefield. Common responses range from depression to heartache -- this is our world we are talking about.

Grief is a natural response when you realize that things are coming apart. We have two choices -- we can deny that things are going wrong or we can penetrate into the reasons for our dispair.

Fortunately, we have in our midst a variety of activists and every-day prophets such as Joanna Macy, whose books -- including World as Lover, World as Self -- set a standard with its compassionate linking of environmental concern and spirituality.

Any book by Joanna Macy is a must-read and this is no exception. Coming Back to Life, co-written with Molly Young Brown, is a no-nonsense treatise on "practices to reconnect our lives, our world." It is a practical guide that shows readers concerned for the environment, for the planet that are in fact not alone.

The authors point the way forward, past angst, guilt and apathy, to the work that reconnects. It is a welcome volume and will assist all those interested in environmental issues, peace and spirit with its holistic appraisal of our place in the world.

Excerpts from Coming Back to Life:

This is a guidebook. It maps ways into the vitality and determination we each possess to take part in the healing of the world... It can be done alone, and has reached countless private lives. It is most effectively done in groups.

Our pain for the world, including fear, anger, sorrow and guilt we feel on behalf of life on Earth, is not only pervasive. It is natural and healthy. It is dysfunction only to the extent that it is misunderstood and repressed.

In contrast to reform environmentalism, which treats the symptoms of ecological degradation -- clean up a river here or a dump there for human well-being -- deep ecology questions fundamental premises of the Industrial Growth Society.

Why work in groups? Workshops provide focus and duration. In the daily run of life the global dangers facing us can appear too pervasive, too remote, too appalling to discuss in a personal fashion without soon shifting the topic. A workshop is an island in time where, removed from other distractions and demands, we can focus together long enough to reach and explore our deep responses to these dangers. The group serves as a lens which helps us sustain the gaze.

Each of us has an important and irreplaceable role to play in the healing of our world. Each has distinctive gifts to bring. Closing your eyes, breathing slowly, visualize the conditions of your life and the strengths that have been given to you... They will allow you to do something no one else can do... You may not see that path very clearly yet, but the knowledge of it is within you, and it will unfold now, more and more with each step you take...

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Ron Mader lives in Mexico City and travels frequently throughout the Americas. He hosts the award-winning Planeta.com: Eco Travels in the Americas website -- http://www.planeta.com -- and is the author of the Mexico: Adventures in Nature guidebook and the Exploring Ecotourism in the Americas resource guide.

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