Finding and Making Beauty in Quarantine
By now you may have seen them. But these are the kinds of videos you can watch again and again to be reminded that, during the hardest of times, people find a way to be [...]
Radical Joy in Coronavirus Hard Times
As the world goes crazy about the coronavirus—and even crazier about succumbing the panic of the coronavirus—it's time to look both outward at the effect the disease is having on the Earth and inward to [...]
Ballerina on the Streets
What could be more magical? You're a young child, shooting baskets or playing in front of your house with your friends, when all of a sudden a beautiful ballerina in a tutu appears and begins [...]
On Lying Beauty
The Practice of RadJoy entails going to damaged places and finding and making beauty there. We take a bold, honest look at what's before us, open up to difficult feelings of outrage and grief... and [...]
Wounding and Beauty on the Jordanian-Palestinian Border
Earlier this month I was part of an extraordinary international delegation of spiritual leaders, musicians, diplomats, and environmental and peace activists traveling through Jordan, Palestine, and Israel. The trip was organized by Unity Earth, EcoPeace [...]
Poetic references, wise counsel: Review of Radical Joy for Hard Times
Just before running out the door on the morning of September 27th, my eye was caught by a brief article in the paper announcing that a Trump Company proposal to build a 550–unit luxury housing [...]
She addresses the cedar…
One simple and meaningful way to find and make beauty for a place—and actually to do both at the same time—is to praise it. Praising a clearcut forest, a littered beach, a raccoon killed by a [...]
Buddhist Scholar: Seek Happiness in Hard Times
According to Buddhist author and psychologist Jack Kornfield, happiness is not a feeling or a series of pleasures, it is "a deep sense of well-being and an appreciation for life itself, with all of its [...]
Ceremony Replaces Shyness
It's not uncommon that people feel a little bit shy and awkward when they do their first—or even their second or third—Global Earth Exchange. There is little precedent, after all, for going out to a [...]
Standing at the River
The Peace River valley, a place I love, is being stripped and excavated to build a hydroelectric dam. This is happening in the far north-east of British Columbia, a ferry ride and two days’ drive [...]