The following excerpt is from our very first Global Earth Exchange in 2009. The writer, Meredith Little of Big Pine, California, chose as her wounded place the Owens Valley, a once fertile riparian area whose water was diverted in the 1900s so Los Angeles could prosper. Meredith describes her feelings of anger and sorrow as she walks on the dry, dusty land. Then:

Amazing things happen when we reach beyond what we think we know, what we think we can give, or how “creative” we assume we are. Sometimes these surprises come from a shift in the land or the weather, sometimes from another person, and sometimes from a simple gesture that arises in us that we could never have predicted a moment we enacted it.

This year, on June 22, Radical Joy for Hard Times holds our 10th annual Global Earth Exchange, the day when people around the world go to places they love that have been hurt or endangered and give them attention and creativity.

Our theme is Daring to Bear Witness. It takes courage to face a place you love that has been paved over, polluted, flooded, or cut down. But, just as facing the dark places in ourselves helps heal them, so we heal the relationship between our places and ourselves by visiting them, sharing our stories, and making the RadJoy Bird or other gift of beauty.

Every day we lose more beautiful places. Let’s not wait any longer to show our love of them.