Last week, about fifty members of the Wilderness Guides Council, an organization dedicated to leading wilderness rites of passage programs, held their annual meeting (the first since 2019) in Sequoia National Park in eastern California. In September 2021, a wildfire, the sixth in six years, had roared through the park, this time killing many of the giant and majestic trees near Bearskin Meadow, where the group was meeting.

One afternoon about a dozen people made a pilgrimage to the burned area to practice the 5 Steps of RadJoy’s simple yet profound ceremony:

1.     Go to a wounded place.

2.     Sit awhile and share your experience of the place.

3.     Get to know the place as it is now.

4.     Share what you discovered.

5.     Make an act of beauty for the place.

The third step, getting to know the place in its current state, is always filled with surprises. This time, people explored the forest for about twenty minutes, spending time with whatever grabbed their attention and “called” to them. Then, perched on rocks or standing amid the char, they shared their stories. One young woman passed out sequoia seeds, flat and tiny as wisps of confetti, from an area where new trees were sprouting. One man (above) anointed his face and arms with ash. Many noted the abundance of pink, white, and purple wildflowers emerging from the blackened ground, undeterred or even impelled by the calamity to blossom. As the group was telling their stories, two foxes, scampering through the forest, paused to peer curiously at the visitors before darting into the land that was still, or once again, their home.

When we pay tribute to wounded places, we are so often gifted with unexpected beauty.

—Trebbe Johnson