5 Simple Ways to Bring Beauty to Wounded Places: 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.

5 Simple Ways
to Bring Beauty to Wounded Places

Global Earth Exchange 2016, Durban, South Africa. Photo courtesy of Janet Frangs and Sonia Pithey.

On June 18 people all over the world went to wounded places they care about to share their stories, get to know the place as it is now, and make a simple gift of beauty. Whether you participated that day or not, here are some suggestions for finding and making beauty in places undergoing hard times:

1. Go to a wounded place (maybe the same place you went to for your Global Earth Exchange) and sit with it for half an hour. Tell the place (out loud) how you feel about what's happened to it. Then listen to whether it has anything to say to you in reply.

2. For one day notice all the things in your home that are made of wood. Reflect on the trees they came from.

3. When you drive past a wounded place, stop. Get out of the car. Bow in respect. Consider leaving an Act of Beauty, like a calling card.

4. The next time you're with friends, ask them if they've had the experience of losing a place they've loved. Invite everyone to share the stories of those places, what happened, and how they felt.

5. Give thanks to water. Reflect on the many places in the world where people don't have clean drinking water. Remember the water shortages other places are experiencing. Raise a glass in gratitude for the water you have... and savor the taste.

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Radical Joy Revealed.

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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