Chapter 1
The first chapter, Three Stories of Our Time, describes how our responses to world events are shaped by the story we look from. Each story, or version of reality, acts as a lens through which we see and understand what’s going on. In the story of ‘Business as Usual’, there seems little need to change the way we live. The second story, ‘The Great Unraveling’, draws attention to the disasters ‘Business as Usual’ is taking us towards, as well as those it has already brought about. The third story, The Great Turning, is about the epochal transition towards a life sustaining society committed to the healing and recovery of our world. The central plot here is about finding and offering our unique contribution, which we describe as our ‘gift of active hope’.
Chapter 2
In Chapter Two, Trusting the Spiral, we introduce some of the threads we follow to strengthen our capacity and motivation to play our part. One of these is the spiral of the Work That Reconnects, and the structure of the book follows the four stages this spiral moves through: Gratitude, Honoring our Pain for the World, Seeing with New Eyes and Going Forth. The journey through these stages has a strengthening effect that deepens with every repetition. While each time round is never quite the same, the dynamic of this spiral reveals itself as a powerful and trustworthy structure of support.