The First Gift of Beauty: 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 First Gift of Beauty

Evacuees from the Oroville Dam area and Sikh women get to know one another at Shri Guru Ravidass Temple, Rio Linda, CA. Photo by Marcus Yam / LA Times

When calamity befalls the place where you live, simply surviving and keeping the family together becomes your first priority. You need shelter, water, food. You worry if you'll ever again see your wedding photo, your grandmother's lace tablecloth, the Valentine your daughter made when she was in kindergarten--the Teddy bear she's crying for right now.

At times like these, you're not ready to go to back to that place and make a gift of beauty like those we create for wounded places at Radical Joy for Hard Times Earth Exchanges. That comes later... when the waters have receded, when the fires have been extinguished, when you've sorted through your belongings and are ready to rebuild your relationship with your place.

And that's why acts of beauty from one person to another are so important in times of crisis.

Earlier this month, as tens of thousands of people in central California fled low-lying regions on the Feather River amid warnings that Oroville Dam could overflow, Sikh temples welcomed evacuees. They provided blankets, shelter, friendship, and vegetarian meals to whomever needed it, without regard to faith, race, or political point of view.

The guests, meanwhile, did what they could to respect the religious guidelines of their hosts. Men wore their baseball caps inside, so as to keep their heads covered. People removed their shoes before entering the common space.

Since September 11, members of the Sikh community have frequently been the targets of abuse and violence. Yet responding with vengeance or hatred has never been an option. "Our faith teaches us to help everyone," said Nirmal Singh, priest at Shri Guru Ravidass Temple in Rio Linda. "The poor, the hungry, it doesn't matter who you are."

To discover other stories of inspiring people, stories, photos, and ideas, subscribe to

Radical Joy Revealed.

"Happiness is conditional. Joy is not." Join RadJoy founder Trebbe Johnson for a

Radical Joy for Hard Times weekend workshop at Rowe Center in western Massachusetts April 14-16. Learn how radical joy begins with a willingness to face your suffering and open up to the moment in a refreshing space of honesty and receptivity. You'll become newly attentive to surprising outbursts of beauty and generosity--in nature, in your friends and family, and in the stories of others. You'll learn, too, that once you've received these gifts of beauty, you must extend yourself beyond your experience of suffering to give beauty outward--and in that giving is joy.

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.

Donate to help Radical Joy

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.

Know someone else that would be interested in our organization?

Not yet signed up to receive our emails?