It Takes Guts to Do This!

Recently, an active member of the RadJoy network who lives in England expressed discouragement that so many of the people she tries to talk to about our practice of finding and making beauty for hurt places simply don’t want to hear about it. When gas fracking pierces farmlands, when highways cut close to ancient stone circles, when climate change mutates the seasons and brings wildfire and flooding… why, our friend wondered, won’t people acknowledge their fear and sorrow?

Who wants to confront the sad, the ugly, the polluted with a view toward finding something beautiful there and giving something beautiful back? Truly, it takes guts to do this work of Radical Joy for Hard Times! And yet, there are those among us — including those of you who read this blog — who are not afraid to face the hard places on the Earth and in people’s hearts. You know that we humans are deeply attached to our places and that, when those places are hurt, we hurt too. You are willing to face that hurt, even to open up to it, for you know that, in that process, other emotions arise: gratitude for what you have, courage for what you are willing to do, a glimpse of beauty in some surprising way, and newfound compassion and connection with friends and former strangers. There is also the unmistakable sense that the place you are visiting is alive, that it welcomes the creativity and care you give.