Naming Those We've Lost: Radical Joy Revealed

Radical Joy Revealed is a weekly message of inspiration about finding and making beauty in wounded places. We hope you'll enjoy these doorways into places that are both familiar and surprising, and we welcome your suggestions, stories, and photos. Click here to subscribe.

The last northern white rhino. Photo by Luke Reavley

Naming Those We've Lost

Hard Times: the loss of animals that will never again walk this Earth

Radical Joy: our capacity to remember and honor them

We often hear grim statistics about the numbers of animal species that are likely become extinct as climate change, deforestation, hunting, and pollution wreak havoc on their lives and their habitats. Some scientists say that 30-50% of species could disappear by the middle of the 21^st century.

Let us for a moment elevate general statistics to very specific lives. These are a few of the animal species that became extinct in 2016:

Northern White Rhino

Javan Rhino

Hawksbill Turtle

Vaquitas Porpoise

Hawaiian Monk Seal

Blue-throated Macaw

Hawaiian Crow

Kakapo Parrot

November 30 is Remembrance Day for Lost Species, a day to learn about, mourn, and honor the animals and plants that have become extinct. Alone or with friends, let us take a moment to remember these beings we will miss, even though we might never have encountered them personally. Let us look up information about their lives. Let us make a picture of them, do a dance for them, sing a song for them. If they can't live in the world, they can live in us.

And to become part of an ongoing practice to honor the beings we're losing, see the beautiful work of Extinction witness.

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It's easy to make beauty anywhere! Here's how!

New from Radical Joy for Hard Times founder
Trebbe Johnson: a book filled with ideas for creating simple, imaginative, collaborative gifts of beauty for hurt places in nature and in your community!

To order click here.

Radical Joy for Hard Times is a global community of people dedicated to finding and making beauty in wounded places. Reconnecting with these places, sharing our stories of loss, and making acts of beauty there, we transform the land, reconnect people and the places that nourish them, and empower ourselves to make a difference in the way we live on Earth.

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Each week Radical Joy Revealed comes to you free of charge with inspiring stories and suggestions for living with endangered places in creative, life-affirming ways. It takes thought, imagination, and a sense of timing to uncover and write the stories, choose just the right images to accompany them, and prepare them for distribution, and we could use your financial help. Please show your support of Radical Joy Revealed by making a tax-deductible donation to our non-profit organization.

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