The Gifts of Uncertainty by Joanna Macy — Anne-Marie Brest

This is how Joanna Macy, – a long-time peace, justice, and ecology activist, a scholar of buddhism and systems thinking, and a translator of Rainer Maria Rilke, opens the plenary address of the Bioneers conference in 2009. Even though that was a more than a decade ago, these words so perfectly describe for me the world we find ourselves in, this autumn of 2021, with the corona virus still a daily presence in our lives, at a time when in the U.S.A it feels like it’s a on-going gamble to understand which laws will pass and which will be repealed, when a path to a successful COP26 next month in Glasgow is at best unclear, when personal and professional plans get made and regularly unmade. Uncertainty is ever present in our lives. Dr. Macy is best known around the world for The Work That Reconnects which she details in her celebrated book Active Hope, co-authored with Chris Johnstone. As a matter of fact, the last chapter of the book is titled Strengthened by Uncertainty. So what does she mean by that? What are The Gifts of Uncertainty that she talks about at the Bioneers conference? What can we get from them?

In her conference speech, she lists the following five gifts:

• The gift of the present moment

• The gift of fresh recognition of the power of intention

• The gift of befriending our pain and the great mystery it brings us

• The gift of our solidarity with all our relations

• The gift of an immensity of time, our true age

The gift of the present moment is well understood to be the basis for mindfulness. Being in the moment means being fully present to our experience so that we can choose the response that is most appropriate to the situation at hand. “Not knowing brings your attention fully into the present” writes Dr. Macy.

The gift of fresh recognition of the power of intention: in spiritual, religious and psychological settings, the power of intention is used to add strength and commitment to a desire for a change, may it be a change in personal behavior or a wish for a change in the world. Through prayers, vows, mantras, affirmations, sticky notes reminders, we set our intentions for ourselves and for the world. Joanna Macy writes: “Our intentionality endows the present moment with direction.”

The gift of befriending our pain and the great mystery it brings us is about understanding the wisdom of the pain and having the courage to feel it fully, – knowing that the pain is there for a reason and that it’s important to pay attention to it. Learning to appreciate our pain for the information it’s bringing is key. The pain can be personal, physical or emotional, or it can also be pain for others and the world, empathy or eco-grief, for example.

The gift of our solidarity with all our relations is about realizing we are not alone, that we are all connected to each other and to all life on this planet. This is what motivates us to act for the sake of life on Earth.

The gift of an immensity of time, our true age is about remembering that our actions today will have an impact generations from now. It’s the idea that it’s important to take the long view, to embrace timefulness. (For more on this topic, please refer to my newsletter and associated resources on timefulness).

In that same address, Joanna Macy recites the last sonnet of Sonnets to Orpheus by the Austrian poet Rilke as an example of the gifts of uncertainty. You can hear her recite it on OnBeing with this link or read it below.

Quiet friend who has come so far,

feel how your breathing makes more space around you.
Let this darkness be a bell tower
and you the bell. As you ring,

what batters you becomes your strength.
Move back and forth into the change.
What is it like, such intensity of pain?
If the drink is bitter, turn yourself to wine.

In this uncontainable night,
be the mystery at the crossroads of your senses,
the meaning discovered there.

And if the world has ceased to hear you,
say to the silent earth: I flow.
To the rushing water, speak: I am.

(From Sonnets to Orpheus II, Translation by Joanna Macy and Anita Barrows)
Follow this link to hear Joanna Macy read this poem at OnBeing.