Navarre Beach Global Earth Exchange

On June 19, at least sixty groups came together on every one of the world's seven continents to find and make beauty in wounded places.

Participants in the Global Earth Exchange, sponsored by Radical Joy for Hard Times, gathered at clear-cut forests (Washington, Oregon), polluted waters (Oregon, Vermont, Bolivia, the Gulf of Mexico), and formerly wild acres destroyed to build shopping malls (Virginia, Pennsylvania). They reflected on a disappearing glacier (Antarctica), a sacred mountain spring that flows down to the rice paddies of an entire island (Bali), lands already assaulted (Australia, West Virginia) or about to be assaulted (Pennsylvania) by mining, and a valley marred by a motorway (Germany). They honored bats (Virginia) and dolphins (Hawaii). They went to coal plants, abandoned factories, and the site of the 2010 Olympics.

Some of the events were large, drawing up to thirty-six people. Several were solo creations of just one person. The focus of reflection was sometimes very personal (a family farmhouse in New Hampshire that recently burned to the ground), sometimes of global concern (the Gulf of Mexico). In Oregon, the award-winning author Barry Lopez did a private event. In Australia, Glenn Albrecht, who coined the term solastalgia, meaning the pain one feels upon recognizing that the place one loves is under assault, and his wife created a Radical Joy bird above the valley that is being destroyed by open-pit mining.

People drummed and sang, prayed and made offerings. On the Great Salt Lake they made a great spiral and twirled on it. In the Florida Keys they splashed in the water. On Virginia's eastern shore they wove birdhouses out of reviled "invasive" grasses. In London they painted their faces and recalled the wildness of themselves and the Earth. In the mountains outside Dublin they buried a pregnant deer who had died when she got stuck in a muddy pit made by motorcycle tracks. One couple found two abandoned kittens at their wounded place in North Carolina and took them home.

Men and women told their stories, or privately reflected, on what these places meant to them, both before and after they were damaged. They sat or walked silently and paid attention to what was happening in the place in the present. They discovered beauty and meaning in surprising ways.

Finally they gave back an act of beauty to the place. In most instances this included making a stylized image of a bird, constructed of materials found on the place itself. This bird, singing as it flies into the Earth's damaged, beloved places, is the symbol of Radical Joy for Hard Times.

To see a slide show of the Global Earth Exchange, visit our website. To read some of the individual stories (more are being added daily), see the Earth Exchanges page.

All of the stories that we've been receiving are deeply moving. This one, from Mike Beck, host of the Earth Exchange on Navarre Beach, Florida, already becoming polluted with oil from the BP gusher, is especially poignant:

Our beaches are being swarmed almost daily since the end of the first week of the sinking of the Deep Water Horizon with gatherings of people of all stripes: protests, prayer groups, volunteers, rallies for state and national action, save the dolphins, etc. I think we have been the only group that came with a single simple clear intention: deep appreciation, gratitude and humility for the Earth and what was in each other's hearts. While we were finishing drumming and getting ready to find flotsam and jetsam for our act of beauty, [a middle-aged couple walked by]. It was the man who spoke, asking, "Does your band practice early mornings at the beach often?" Cynthia, who was standing wiping sand off her legs, just looked at him smiling and said enthusiastically, "Oh no, we're not a band! We just came to be with a sick friend." Then there was a momentary pause, a silence with only the gently cresting waves falling on the shore before he said in a kindly voice, "Thank you for doing this."

Celilo Falls Global Earth Exchange.
Photo by Daniel Dancer

Every once in a while (last night for example), I seem to have to drown for a while in the sorrows of the world. The plight of oil-entombed birds in the Gulf, children horribly victimized by militants in the Congo, my own financial stress, the illness of two beloved friends--it all feels like a great ocean of sorrow that I am not exactly caught in, but somehow need to swim in. On nights like those, I get little sleep. When I remember it (often not in a very timely way), the Buddhist practice of tonglen is helpful.

Here's what author and teacher Pema Chödrön says about tonglen on her website:

The tonglen practice is a method for connecting with suffering--ours and that which is all around us--everywhere we go. It is a method for overcoming fear of suffering and for dissolving the tightness of our heart. Primarily it is a method for awakening the compassion that is inherent in all of us, no matter how cruel or cold we might seem

to be.

We begin the practice by taking on the suffering of a person we know to be hurting and who we wish to help. For instance, if you know of a child who is being hurt, you breathe in the wish to take away all the pain and fear of that child. Then, as you breathe out, you send the child happiness, joy or whatever would relieve their pain. This is the core of the practice: breathing in others' pain so they can be well and have more space to relax and open, and breathing out, sending them relaxation or whatever you feel would bring them relief and happiness.

She goes on to advise that, if you feel overwhelmed and stuck, you can just focus on all the people who feel just as you do. Then you breathe in difficulty for all of us, breathe out relief for all of us.

Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest. Photo by Jerry Greer

On September 10-17, my colleague Eugene Hughes and I will be returning to the beautiful old-growth Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest in southwestern North Carolina for our second What Now? program. The program is designed for people who have had a powerful vision or intention in their lives (whether through a vision quest or otherwise) and now find that they need to re-explore that vision, either because they have changed, or the world has changed, or both.

The natural world is the wisest and most exacting teacher, because we are constantly being drawn to facets in nature that precisely and subtly mirror where we are in that very instant, both within and without. On this journey, we work with the conjunction between human and nature in many ways: a twilight ceremony at the lake to let go of what you no longer need... an evolving mandala of what's important in your life, made of earth's elements... a 24-hour solo in the ancient forest... and more.

It was both startling and gratifying last year to see the participants' visions emerge--clear, sharp, and whole--by the end of the week. As always, the treasure was never outside and unknown, but always within and waiting to be discerned. Yet, it's amazing how much gunk, in the form of other people's ideas, our own experience or lack of it, ingrained opinions about our skills, etc. muddy it up.

We are looking for people who know they have something vital to contribute to their world and are seeking clarity, insight, and the first steps so they can get going! If that's you, then do join us. For more information, see the Vision Arrow website.

We all live with two inner forces that influence many of our decisions each day. One calls us forth into the mystery that beckons us to expand more fully and authentically into the world. The other holds us back and urges (often excessive) caution. This popular workshop, based on my book, focuses on the first voice, that of the archetypal Beloved, a figure that shows up in the myths of many cultures, the poems of mystics, and in our dreams as the symbol of wholeness. Brought to conscious awareness, the Path of the Lover can bring us joy, passion, and fulfillment.
 

• Connect with the archetypal Beloved in you, that knows how to say YES to what you love
• Discover how your past loves (including those that didn't work out) were essential in opening you up to a bigger capacity to love
• Learn to recognize the inner voice of the "loyal soldier" that wants to hold you back from following your heart
• See how fascination and allurement have led you onto important paths all your life
  

July 30-August 2: Seattle (contact Ruth Dow Rogers) Note: This workshop is being held in a private home on the water and will be limited to only twelve people. It is shaping up to be a wonderful group, and there's still time & space to join.

November 12-14: Schloss Glarisegg, Lake Constance, Switzerland (contact Silvia Figel)

November 19-21: Eschwege Institute, Eschwege, Germany

Endless Mountains Vision Quest

August 9-13

This four-day program, held in a secluded 400-acre nature preserve, is specially designed for those who seek a meaningful rite of passage in a beautiful, yet accessible place. You explore many of the same processes and practices as in the longer vision quest, but with a focus on reading Nature's lessons and discovering how they apply to your own path in life. For the twenty-four-hour solo you may choose from among diverse ecological niches: glacial pond, meadow, wetlands, stream, or forest. Minimal backpacking. $605

What Now?