You’ve Made the World More Beautiful

10 Years of Global Earth Exchanges
Edited and with Commentary by Trebbe Johnson
Stories and Photos by Global Earth Exchange Participants

Calliope Books, 2021

In 2010 the Radical Joy for Hard Times team launched their new organization by inviting people to go to places they loved that had been hurt and make a simple, spontaneous gift of beauty for them. The response was overwhelmingly enthusiastic and diverse. People on all seven continents joined in, from a scientist in Antarctica grieving a melting glacier to a puppet play for a polluted river in Vermont, from a traditional ceremony in Bali to a new home in Colorado with a troubled past. Ever since, the Global Earth Exchange has been an annual event. This book, featuring stories and photos of some of the many events that have unfolded over ten years, as told by the people who created them, is a moving and inspiring testament to how the relationship between people and place is enduring, deeply emotional, and endlessly creative.

“The practice of Radical Joy for Hard Times is a gateway to full acceptance and loving compassion for this wounded earth. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the space where ecological awareness, activism, and art therapy intermingle.”
—Harriet Sams, Author and Archeotherapist