Part 2 · Honouring the Pain for the World
The Boldest Devastation
Read the Lyrics
Singing Key
Take me to your lonely place and leave me there You always look so calm - How can you keep your stillness in amongst all these alarms? The near-collapse of everything It's time these engines stalled; it's the Boldest Devastation, wrought by us, upon us all. You're brave - despite all of this fury, there's a hope you always say, and your love of life is racing away… Hold this forever: love and honesty are what we're made of; it's not going away. We're way beyond our limits, and the time is right for us to refrain There's nothing to strive for and nothing to crave - it's just how we behaved. Hold this - it's as precious as the loving that we never made. We're all wasted when we're hungering for money and the gravy trains There's nothing to strive for and nothing to gain - it's just how we behave. You're brave - despite all of this fury, there's a hope you always say, and your love of life is racing away. If I held you forever and I promised you that I'd never stray Would you save all of the species and reverse all of the climate change? Is it too much to ask? Can you take it away?
Sit With This
Theme: collapse, grief at scale, stillness, presence, values
- What alarms are loudest in your life right now. Climate. Money. Politics. Loss.
- Where do you find people who remain calm without being numb.
- Can you name qualities in people that help them be impactful with their presence or actions.
- What values feel non-negotiable for you, even as systems fray.
- What does "refraining" look like in your life. Less striving. Less consuming. Less speed.
- What kind of world are you quietly practising already, even if it feels small.
🌍 Council of All Beings — an introduction ▾
A practice from the Work That Reconnects · Joanna Macy & John Seed, Thinking Like a Mountain
The Boldest Devastation sits with grief at scale — the collapsing of the living world. This practice begins to cross a threshold: from grieving what we have lost to listening to what remains. It plants a seed that will open in the next song.
The invitation
Take a few quiet minutes. Close your eyes if that feels right. Empty your mind of the human world — the news, the meetings, the worry. Let your attention move outward, or inward, toward the living world.
What comes to mind? Not a person. Not a concept. Something alive from the non-human world — a creature, a landscape, a river, a species, a forest, a stone, a whale, a fungal network, a cloud. Whatever comes without forcing. Whatever calls you.
Hold that being lightly. You'll carry it into the next song.
Facilitation note: keep this short — 3 to 5 minutes of quiet, then simply ask people to note what arrived. No sharing needed yet. The Council will speak in It Will Find You.
Audio Recording
The Deeper Dive
A lockdown Covid song. I had taken the last plane out of Kenya before they closed the airports, and now I was quarantining in a camper van on my parents' driveway. There was panic in the shopping aisles, whilst in Kenya, people simply ploughed more fields and planted more food, pragmatic and calm. I thought of a friend of mine who had escaped the fast burn of California for a new life of yoga and breathwork in Bali. She was cultivating her inner stillness, reconnecting with what matters as the world's systems went crazy. But there was still grief to engage with and transform.