What do you do after the bomb explodes?: 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.

Working in Kabul garden on day of bomb blast

Afghan Peace Volunteers working in their permaculture garden on the day of the terrorist attack
May 30. Photo courtesy of Hakim Young

What do you do
after the bomb explodes?

Among the members of the Radical Joy for Hard Times global community are a group of young women and men from Kabul, Afghanistan, the Afghan Peace Volunteers.

Last week, after the latest horrendous terrorist attack in Kabul killed 150 people and wounded at least 300 others, we checked in with them to find out if they and their families were all right.

Hakim Young sent us this photo along with this message: "Many thanks, we're all safe, and not wanting to 'get used' to life in a war zone. War is brutal, and begets more war, again and again. Attached is a photo of some of us working on the permaculture plot at Kabul University, after we got news of the bomb blast."

So what do you do when the bomb explodes? You work in the garden.

The actions of the Afghan Peace Volunteers offer an important message for all of us: Things are never so bad that we can't reach beyond our own suffering and anxiety and create something fruitful, healthy, and positive together. We keep going, one step at a time. We acknowledge that things are bad. And then we do whatever we can to create beauty in a wounded world.

The Afghan Peace Volunteers will be participating in this year's Global Earth Exchange on June 17. Please join them and all the other individuals and communities around the world on that day in making beauty for a place you care about.

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

Radical Joy Revealed.

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

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!

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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