With an expanded sense of identity comes a richer experience of community. Being joined in The Great Turning with millions of people throughout the world, as well as with our neighbours down the street or hallway, gives us a shared purpose and journey. Recognising how our survival is linked to that of other species, we can experience a sense of common purpose with non-human entities too. Chapter Seven, A Richer Experience of Community, explores how a spirituality of connection with life widens the web of our community, bringing a deeper sense both of belonging in the world and of being supported by it.

A family extends over generations and has a lifespan of centuries. It can be thought of as a community existing through time that includes ancestors, people living now and those yet to be born. In this larger temporal context, which we call Deep Time, we step beyond our personal, or even familial, lifespan and see ourselves as living within a far wider timescape. Tracing our ancestry, we can follow an unbroken thread of life that extends back billions of years. Thanks to our moral imagination, we can let future beings become more real to us: their lives and health depend on us. Chapter Eight, A Larger View of Time, illustrates how expanding our view of time opens us to new sources of solidarity and support, and offers exercises that workshop participants have found profoundly inspiring. At a time when many experience time pressures and hurry, this awareness brings a sense of spaciousness and ease.