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.

Living with the Unfixable

Household garbage dumped beside the road. Photo by Joanne Martin

An active member of our RadJoy community, Joanne Martin, recently confronted an eyesore close to her own home. Her neighbors had decided to do a spring housecleaning... then dumped their trash on the side of the road.

Every time Joanne drove past the mess, she fumed. She kept asking herself and her friends how she should respond:

1. Keep ignoring it and feeling the anguish?
2. Clean it up herself?
3. Go to the people's house, introduce herself, and offer to supply trash bags if they'd help her with the clean-up?
4. Go to the house and act as if she has no idea who dumped the stuff and that she supposes the homeowners are as upset as she is?

She came to realize that what she really strives for is "equanimity," mental calmness, composure, and balance. These qualities, she believes, will become increasingly important as climate change and other environmental problems mount. She also had to accept that she can't fix every assault on the Earth... even though feeling guilty for not doing more is part of the burden she carries as a nature lover and a conscientious environmental activist.

"Truly," Joanne writes, "the RadJoy practice of bringing beauty to wounded places is a response that is part action, part healing, spiritual and equanimous."

How do you live with assaults on places you love? Let us know and we'll print your answers in an upcoming Radical Joy Revealed.

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

Radical Joy Revealed.

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.

It's time once again for the Global Earth (Gift) Exchange, the day when people all over the world make simple gifts of beauty for the places they love that have fallen on hard times.

Saturday, June 18--worldwide!

Stay tuned for more details!

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We love sending you Radical Joy Revealed each week and sharing inspiring stories and ideas that make a difference to people struggling to find meaning, beauty, and community in challenged places We're committed to offering this newsletter at no charge to you, our readers. Currently, our organization is experiencing a severe financial crisis. We welcome any contribution you can offer. Thank you for supporting RadJoy!

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