Radical Joy Revealed
October 19, 2016
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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. 

GEx for the abandoned corner
Transition Town members with their RadJoy Bird at the Global Earth Exchange for An Abandoned Corner, West Hurley, NY, June 2016. Photo by Polly Howells

"I love gasoline!" declared Clayton, as if he were surprised to hear himself admitting it. Clayton was part of a small group that gathered last June 18 for a Global Earth Exchange at the site of an abandoned Exxon gas station beside two well-traveled roads in West Hurley, upstate New York.
 
He made his remark as men and women in the group shared their impressions after exploring this site that had been shut down in the late 1980s after the land became contaminated by oil and gas and that has since become a strange oasis of cracked concrete and towering catalpa trees, whizzing traffic and wildflowers. Hosted by Polly Howells of Woodstock, the event was one of scores occurring around the world that day as people visited places that had fallen on hard times, got reacquainted with them, and made a simple gift of beauty for them. All the participants in the West Hurley group were members of The Transition Town Movement, a nationwide network of community members seeking creative solutions to serious environmental and economic problems.
 
As cars and motorcycles roared past, Clayton articulated, unabashedly and humorously, the dilemma that many of us face as we confront the repercussions of overconsumption... and the fact that, sometimes, we just plain love things we believe we ought to hate. Listen to what he says in this two-minute video recorded by another explorer of the old gas station, Jana Smith, for her Green Stories to the Rescue Facebook page. (Click on the video entitled "MMotorcyle Man vs. Mobil".) Click on the following links to read more about the West Hurley Global Earth Exchange and others around the world last June.  

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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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