The Great Turning

WE ARE THE ONES WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOR!

I have been thinking about this concept ever since hearing about it at GA. I did some research and found some great guidelines and such online. There is a main website with a page on Earth Community Dialogues which outlines alot of stuff:

IMPERATIVE
Business as usual is over. The era of cheap oil is ending, climate change is real and deadly, and the U.S. economy rests on an unsustainable foundation of financial and environmental debt. For most people, the debate on each of these issues is now over. Yet there is little prospect of constructive political leadership coming from Washington, DC. The initiative in embracing the moral imperative to fashion a constructive response to a growing planetary emergency must flow from the community level upward through an inclusive process that engages the interests and participation of everyone. Earth Community Dialogues are a response to this imperative.

UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLES
Earth Community is a term from the Earth Charter, a declaration of universal responsibility to and for one another and the Living Earth crafted through consultations involving thousands of individuals and hundreds of organizations from all regions of the world. The Charter sets forth four overarching principles:
respect and care for the community of life;
ecological integrity;
social and economic justice; and
democracy, nonviolence, and peace.
These principles define universal values affirmed by all the world's major faith traditions and embraced by a substantial majority of the world's people. They are the foundation values of Earth Community and provide the guiding framework for Earth Community Dialogues.

BEING THE CHANGE WE SEEK
Negotiating a transition from the dominator relations of Empire to the partnership relations of Earth Community necessarily centers on nurturing the practice of partnership at all levels of society from local to national to global. Partnership relations are a product of trust building and the discovery of mutual interests.
By their nature, partnership relations involve a leadership of the whole and represent the highest expression of the democratic ideal. Using instruments of domination as means to achieve the end of partnership assures failure. Partnership relations must emerge from the bottom up through processes of mutual empowerment as people discover and cultivate relationships of trust and otherwise dormant leadership potentials within themselves. Think of it as a process of community building. Earth Community Dialogues, which bring together diverse elements of a community around a commitment to creating a partnership world that works for the whole of life, are an essential part of this community building process.

DEFINING CHARACTERISTICS
An Earth Community Dialogue is best understood not as a single event, but rather as an intentional, broadly inclusive, ongoing conversation centered in a community of place the embraces a commitment to:
The defining principles of the Earth Charter
The moral imperative to create a world that works for all;
Racial, religious, cultural, political, and class diversity;
Mutual respect, deep listening, heartfelt communication;
Values based learning and problem solving; and
The work of gaining currency for stories of Earth Community.
The individual dialogues take many forms and go by many names, but share an underlying commitment to turning the current planetary emergency into an opportunity to create a world aligned with the deeper values most humans share.
A small group or even a single individual might initiate an Earth Community Dialogue in a given locality, perhaps from within a local church, mosque, synagogue, interfaith alliance, local government, college, socially responsible business, or local nonprofit organization. It might build on and support existing initiatives intended to advance local agriculture, energy self-reliance, green building, or support for local businesses. It might begin with a series of discussions on The Great Turning, a YES! Circle, Conversation Café, or other regular discussion group. As these dialogues take root in a growing number of localities, they create a growing potential to merge into ever-larger dialogues of the whole.

STRATEGIC PREMISE
We humans are captive to self-limiting stories that deny the possibility of any alternative to humanity’s current suicidal path. To change course, we must step forward to break the silence that prevails when truth remains unspoken, end the isolation that undermines community, change the stories that define the prevailing culture, and thereby turn the human species to a future that works for all. Our collective behavior will change as our collective stories change. No matter how small the individual voice, it can contribute to changing the national conversation, and thus our politics and the course of the human future.

POSSIBILITY
Possibilities for a rapid expansion of the processes of positive bottom up leadership in the United States are far greater than our nation’s bitter political divisions might suggest. Eighty-three percent of Americans believe that we are as a country focused on the wrong priorities. Substantial majorities of both conservatives and liberals want to see greater priority given to children, family, community, and a healthy environment. In short, a substantial majority of Americans feel out of step with the way things are going and embrace the foundational values of Earth Community. The result is a historic moment of opportunity to make a conscious choice to turn from away the sorrows of 5,000 years of Empire and embrace the joys of Earth Community.


I also found some stuff on the lovely Joanna Macy's site about Personal Guidelines for The Great Turning:

Come from Gratitude
To be alive in this beautiful, self-organizing universe--to participate in the dance of life with senses to perceive it, lungs that breathe it, organs that draw nourishment from it--is a wonder beyond words. Gratitude for the gift of life is the primary wellspring of all religions, the hallmark of the mystic, the source of all true art. Furthermore, it is a privilege to be alive in this time when we can choose to take part in the self-healing of our world.

Don't be Afraid of the Dark
This is a dark time, filled with suffering and uncertainty. Like living cells in a larger body, it is natural that we feel the trauma of our world. So don't be afraid of the anguish you feel, or the anger or fear, for these responses arise from the depth of your caring and the truth of your interconnectedness with all beings. To suffer with is the literal meaning of compassion.

Dare to VisionOut of this darkness a new world can arise, not to be constructed by our minds so much as to emerge from our dreams. Even though we cannot see clearly how it's going to turn out, we are still called to let the future into our imagination. We will never be able to build what we have not first cherished in our hearts.

Roll up your Sleeves
Many people don't get involved in the Great Turning because there are so many different issues, which seem to compete with each other. Shall I save the whales or help battered children? The truth is that all aspects of the current crisis reflect the same mistake, setting ourselves apart and using others for our gain. So to heal one aspect helps the others to heal as well. Just find what you love to work on and take joy in that. Never try to do it alone. Link up with others; you'll spark each others' ideas and sustain each others' energy.

Act your Age
Since every particle in your body goes back to the first flaring forth of space and time, you're really as old as the universe. So when you are lobbying at your congressperson's office, or visiting your local utility, or testifying at a hearing on nuclear waste, or standing up to protect an old grove of redwoods, you are doing that not out of some personal whim, but in the full authority of your 15 billions years.