East Bay Cohousing is hosting in Downtown Berkeley at The Hub at the Brower Center live in-person community-forming links to the Transition Movement's new Heart & Soul Series, teleconferences with people making a difference, featuring Joanna Macy (this Wednesday morning!), EBCOHO partner Daily Acts' Trathen Heckman, and Kit Miller, a local compassionate communication (NVC) and Permaculture guru.

Transition US, the series host, works closely with The Transition Network, the international movement spawned by the original Transition Town vision and book in England that maps out a path for citizen engagement in building resiliency through preparing towns for Peak Oil and other coming climate-, energy-, and economy-related challenges.

EBCOHO is participating in the series and hosting it locally because:

• Cohousing and EcoVillages are key tools in the Transition Handbook, yet we haven't forged close ties between the movements.
• The speakers are folks we admire, doing great work right here in the SF Bay Area, and want to learn more from.
• We know from experience that creating an immersive multi-modal experience helps us get more out of any talk; studies show that learning/retention is enhanced by this sort of environment.

We'll join the conference call, bring up relevant info and websites on the display, and listen and appreciate and contribute together but also go deeper with our own in-person connections, using the room's wall-to-wall whiteboards for visualization, collective communication, collaboration and visioning during the event

Optional no-host lunch afterwards on the patio at localvore sustainable Gather Restaurant downstairs to continue the conversation outdoors.

Please arrive promptly, as the call will begin at the posted time. Half price for current EBCOHO sustaining members (time to join or renew? Do it today, online or at the event), and HUB Members.

Eco-philosopher Joanna Macy, Ph.D., is a scholar of Buddhism, general systems theory, and deep ecology. A respected voice in movements for peace, justice, and ecology, she interweaves her scholarship with four decades of activism. She has created a ground-breaking theoretical framework for personal and social change, as well as a powerful workshop methodology for its application.

Her wide-ranging work addresses 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 are explored in her books Despair and Personal Power in the Nuclear Age (New Society Publishers, 1983); Dharma and Development (Kumarian Press, 1985); Thinking Like a Mountain (with John Seed, Pat Fleming, and Arne Naess; New Society Publishers, 1988; New Society/ New Catalyst, 2007); Mutual Causality in Buddhism and General Systems Theory (SUNY Press, 1991); Rilke's Book of Hours (1996, 2005) and In Praise of Mortality (2004) (with Anita Barrows, Riverhead); Coming Back to Life: Practices to Reconnect Our Lives, Our World (with Molly Young Brown, New Society Publishers, 1998); Joanna's memoir entitled Widening Circles (New Society, 2000); and World as Lover, World as Self (Parallax Press, 2007), A Year With Rilke, Harper One.

Many thousands of people around the world have participated in Joanna's workshops and trainings. Her group methods, known as the Work That Reconnects, have been adopted and adapted yet more widely in classrooms, churches, and grassroots organizing. Her work helps people transform despair and apathy, in the face of overwhelming social and ecological crises, into constructive, collaborative action. It brings a new way of seeing the world, as our larger living body, freeing us from the assumptions and attitudes that now threaten the continuity of life on Earth.

Joanna travels widely giving lectures, workshops, and trainings in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Australia. She lives in Berkeley, California, near her children and grandchildren.

Visit Joanna's website to learn more about her and her work and RSVP here to join us Wednesday - space is limited. A portion of the door fees will be donated to Transition US