Joanna Macy Poem: Grace and The Great Turning

Grace and The Great Turning

When you act on behalf

Of something greater than yourself,

you begin to feel it acting through you

with a power greater than your own.

This is grace.

Today, as we take risks

for the sake of something greater

than our separate, individual lives,

we are feeling graced

by other beings and by Earth itself.

Those with whom and on whose behalf we act

give us strength 

and eloquence

and staying power

we didn’t know we had.

We just need to practice knowing that

and remembering that we are sustained

by each other

in the web of life.

Our true power comes as a gift, like grace,

because in truth it is sustained by others.

If we practice drawing on the wisdom

and beauty and strengths

of our fellow human beings

and our fellow species

we can go into any situation

and trust 

that the courage and intelligence required

will be supplied.

~  Joanna Macy