The RadJoy gift of beauty that you make for a wounded place is determined by several things: where you are, who you are, what happened there, and what the place now offers. One thing remains constant: This gift is created spontaneously, in the present moment.
That’s because the RadJoy ceremony is a union of people and place. You reach out and touch a place that has fallen on hard times, and the place touches you back. From the encounter something beautiful and new emerges, and manifests in a simple, spontaneous act of beauty. Even if you plan your Global Earth Exchange or other event weeks in advance, your expression of gratitude or consolation will arise in the present moment. It’s also rewarding to give beauty and attention to a place at the very instant you saw it needed them.
What a relief to know that you can create beauty at any time, without any advance preparation! In the city park, say, you come across a lawn so saturated with chemicals that signs warn parents not to let their children play on the grass. Angered, you start to pass by and then you realize: Oh! I could make a gift for this place!
So you find some sticks, grass cuttings, maybe a candy wrapper, and a dandelion or two, and you make a RadJoy Bird or other simple offering.
Over time, you begin to see that, just as you can offer beauty and kindness to hurt places at any time and in any place, so can you also offer beauty and kindness to people at any time and in any place.
As the need arises, you are ready. And you act.
Image Credit:
- Kreves 2016: Joy Kreves
MORE RADICAL JOY REVEALED
“There’s No Wounding Here”
Every now and then, around this time of year, in the weeks leading up to the Global Earth Exchange, someone emails to tell me they’d like to participate in our annual event of giving beauty [...]
Do It Though No One Notices
A young woman I know who lives in North Carolina considers herself an ardent environmental activist. She belongs to the Sierra Club and The Wilderness Society, works for an organization that runs therapeutic wilderness programs [...]
In Memory of a Cardinal
Radical Joy for Hard Times has always urged our members around the world to give attention and beauty to those places and beings that have meaning for them. It’s not necessary to seek out some [...]