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.

Merriness Even If You're Not

"Halleluja" flash mob at an Ontario mall.

It's Christmas, merry or not.

Many of us feel melancholy at this time of year. We miss people who have died or in some other way left us. We remember the Christmases and Chanukahs of the past that never quite lived up to what we wanted them to be. We suspect that the gifts we've chosen or the decorations or simply the level of exuberance we're manifesting is simply not up to par.

Even in the happiest of family celebrations, we are likely to feel pangs of sadness.

Radical Joy Revealed invites you to say yes to whatever it is you are experiencing these days. Joyful, sad, lonely, nostalgic, energized... our ability to be pierced by our surroundings is a testament to our humanness. Besides, even the worst days are perfect occasions for seeding the world with a little beauty and attention. And when we are open to the possibility that something amazing may reveal itself at any moment, something often does.

Here, as a reminder, is a of a holiday flash mob in a food court mall in Welland, Ontario. Just as lovely as the singing are the looks of joy and tenderness on the faces of the listeners.

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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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