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.

"Well, I believe those things"

Radical Joy for Hard Times manifesto on display at Red Lily Pond, Craigville, Massachusetts, Global Earth Exchange 2011. Photo by Steve Brown.

We make beauty for places we love that are under assault, because we want to give back to that which has given so much to us. However, acting without the need for your action to have some tangible outcome doesn't preclude surprising outcomes from occurring anyway.

Steve Brown belongs to a conservancy group in Craigville, Massachusetts whose mission is to protect Red Lily Pond, long under threat by developers. At their Global Earth Exchange, the group had a visit from a man known to be vocal about his conservative political leanings. Bristling with disapproval, the man informed Steve that he didn't like the word "radical" in our name. Steve suggested he read the manifesto that was taped to a card table near the water's edge and that posits that all places are worthy of attention. A few minutes later the man was back. "Well, I believe those things," he informed Steve. "That's right up my alley." He ended up staying for the event, which included conversations about what the pond meant to those present and making a bird out of twigs and grasses collected from the banks of the pond.

A few weeks later, when a development corporation submitted a proposal to construct a large illuminated dock over the water, Steve and other activists showed up in force at a hearing called to discuss the plan. They were surprised when the conservative neighbor entered the room, since he didn't usually get involved in local issues. The man stood before the commission and announced, "I'm a Republican and I don't believe in regulations, but this pond is too valuable to destroy."

It's not too late to join this year's Global Earth Exchange. You never know what might come of it!

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Radical Joy Revealed.

It's time for the
Global Earth 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!

For information & to register

click here.
To discover or join other events forming around the world, see our Listings and Map.

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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