Who’ll attend your Global Earth Exchange?

Once again, thank you for stepping forth and daring to bear witness to a place you care about on June 22. All over the world, people like you are also determined not to ignore the places among them that have fallen on hard times, but instead to:

• face these places
• get to know them as they are now
• share with others what the place means to them
• make a simple, spontaneous gift of beauty for the place

Who will attend your Global Earth Exchange?

You can do your “Daring to Bear Witness” Global Earth Exchange alone, with friends, with children, with a group. All it takes is the willingness to face a place that’s under assault, get to know it as it is now, and make a simple creative gift for it.

If you do decide to invite others to join you, here are some suggestions for how to describe the event to your friends who are likely to be unfamiliar with this kind of “artivist” event:

• The Global Earth Exchange is a day when people around the world show up to give simple gifts of beauty to challenged places.
• A Global Earth Exchange is a combination of [choose as many as you like] a community gathering, an experiential arts project, a wake, a ceremony, and a social outing. The honored guest is a place that has fallen on hard times.
• Although at first it may seem strange to choose to spend time in a hurt or endangered place, the experience is almost always empowering and inspiring for all.
• Just as we can’t be whole, healthy individuals without accepting the darker aspects of our human selves, so we can’t be a whole, healthy society without accepting the hurt and neglected places in our communities and wilderness areas.
• You will be surprised at what you discover!

Whatever gift you make for the place will make a difference…. both to you and to the place. People often tell us that they feel the energy of the place change perceptibly as a result of their presence there. What is certain to change is the attitude of everyone who shares the experience.