 |
Radical Joy Revealed
May 17, 2017
g
|
|
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.
|
RadJoy Bird for the Susquehanna River, Global Earth Exchange, 2011.
Photo by Trebbe Johnson
|
In the
Radical Joy for Hard Times practice of the Earth Exchange, we always begin our visit to a wounded place by sitting down together and sharing our stories about what the place means to us. Later, after we've taken some time to wander around on our own, getting to know the place as it is now, we share again, this time about what we discovered.
At one Global Earth Exchange a small group went to the Susquehanna River in Binghamton, NY. The river had just received the dubious distinction as Number One Most Endangered River in America. Here's what they noticed during their time alone:
"I know the Japanese knotweed is terribly invasive, but it's also beautiful. I walked through it like a bride."
"At first I was so conscious of the street noise. It was annoying me. And I kept noticing the trash. Then I started paying attention to the geese swimming around. I was wondering: How are they doing? What's their life like? What kind of families do they have? I forgot all about the noise."
"Beaver have been here. And it was recent! Who would have guessed there were beavers in Binghamton, New York?"
"I had a conversation with the river. I told it that its sister river in Vermont took my brother six weeks ago, and he drowned. But I told the Susquehanna I don't blame it. It was just being a river. A river has many personalities."
"The geese were up on the bank, and when I walked by, we scared each other! They went running down the hill and jumped in the river."
"I feel so sad that the gas fracking companies just use the river for their own purposes, as if it had no rights of its own."
As people told the stories of their time with the river, they discovered things about themselves and about the place. Each story was like a ribbon that extended from the person telling it to wrap round the bushes, animals, and ripples on the water, connecting people and place and giving the place new life and meaning.
|
To discover other stories of inspiring people, stories, photos, and ideas, subscribe to
|
The 9th annual
Global Earth Exchange is Saturday, June 17! On this day people all over the world go to damaged places they care about, share their stories, and make a simple gift of beauty for the place. Our theme this year is...
Sharing Love of Place
q
For more information and to register, see our
website.
|
Just in time for the Global Earth Exchange!
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!
|
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?
|
|
|
|
Copyright © 2016. All Rights Reserved.
|
|
|
|
|
|
