"This is an exciting moment for Lydia and School for The Great Turning as they bring their important work farther out into our world. In these leaden times Lydia’s artistry, energy, and wisdom ignite love for life in people of all ages and backgrounds. Here participants find honesty and strength, as well as spirited community, for facing our current crises head-on.

As root teacher of that work I rejoice that Lydia is an outstanding and trustworthy facilitator. With her understanding of its theoretical foundations and her skill in guiding practices, the music she interweaves serves to strengthen the Work, while weaving its own magic of joy, praise, and resiliency.

I believe Lydia’s mission will serve to inspire positive change for years to come. Her decade+ of studying and co-leading workshops with me have forged her into an invaluable resource for our society. I love to think of all the lives that will be changed and communities enriched by the programs she will provide."

Plant medicine facilitator, yoga teacher, body/ energy worker
Cusco, Peru

"I first learned of School for the Great Turning through the Singing the Bones course with Lydia and Leah Song. I took that course three times…This course was an exploration into my roots and lineage and ancestry through song. It was beautiful and profound and healing on many levels.

Through this new community platform that Lydia had launched- there are many opportunities to continue to gather at the well. I particularly look forward to the Music as Medicine community sing on Sundays, the opportunity to listen to Joanna Macy’s reflections and wisdom, the Work that Reconnects community practice. The wonderful guest speakers like John Seed and Skye and learning about deep ecology. The opportunity to be exposed to many different people and sources of wisdom. The opportunity to grow and evolve in community. I really appreciate that these gatherings are recorded and available to watch again as well, so I can go back to them. I’m very grateful and excited for this new platform."

"We are all the protagonists of what might be called the great turning, the change, the new economy, the new world. And I think it is healing behavior, to look at something so broken and see the possibility and wholeness in it. That’s how I work as a healer: when a body is between my hands, I let wholeness pour through. We are all healers too—we are creating possibilities, because we are seeing a future full of wholeness.”

“We are still mostly misdirected, turned away from the wisdom that is our inheritance.

Joanna Macy speaks of the “great turning,” a collective awakening and shifting direction, away from the wanton destruction of this planet and each other, away from those practices of separation and competition listed above, towards life and abundance. I like this visual of turning and evolving, as opposed to destroying the systems in place now."

Healing Arts Practitioner/Trauma Informed Wellness Services
SW Pa (unceded land of Monongahela, Lenape, Shawnee)

"This community contributes greatly to my own growing awareness that as the world shifts and changes, as climate change is increasingly impacting and interrupting lives, that we (I) need to be in this particular community to foster hope and collective action.

I love this container that has capacity for those who have been immersed in Joanna's work to freely share, converse and facilitate and at the same time, creating space for co-learning by including the voices and inquiries of those of us newer to the Work That Reconnects.

I done several courses with Lydia and her co-teachers, and I trust the process of the Work that Reconnects, and Lydia is completely transparent and open and is a great balance of confidence and humbleness. Thank you for this invitation and the wholehearted communication of all the teachers!"