No matter where we live, we find places we love that are broken or endangered: rivers that are polluted, meadows paved over to make a mall, even the tree in your own backyard killed by insects. Through the RadJoy Practice, we show our love for these places and our enduring connection with them by making simple gifts of beauty for them. – Radical Joy for Hard Times

Nature Art Exploration, a blog focused on reconnecting through nature, art, and culture, is hosting a Lake Superior Earth Exchange on the shores of Gichi-gami on June 22^nd, 2019. Please join us in taking part of the 2019 Global Earth Exchange held world-wide by Radical Joy for Hard Times as we sit with our friend, Lake Superior, and explore our connection to this AMAZING body of water joining together as people around the world on this very same day boldly express love for special places that have fallen on hard times.

LET’S MAKE ART! Let’s make a creative expression that speaks our BIG LOVE FOR OUR BIG LAKE. Lake Superior has heard of the looming threat of copper-nickel mining, and this talk of this proposed disregard is damaging to our friend. She is also recovering from the April 2018 Husky Refinery disaster. Let’s remind her that we LOVE her with our gift of beauty! Know this is not a protest. It is a place for people to express themselves freely without judgement. It is a place for creativity. It is a place for making beauty.

People will meet at Wisconsin Point Beach accessed by Lot #1, in Superior, Wisconsin. We will meet directly in front of the lot at 2:00 p.m. before finding a place to set up. For those who may come later, look for the driftwood pole with a tie dye cloth attached. We will share time together with introductions, stories of our special connection to Lake Superior, and the way we feel about the toxic, copper-nickel mining which poses a threat to Lake Superior. Some people may wish to share their concerns from the Husky Refinery disaster. After a period of sharing, we will break from the group to quietly reflect and connect to this place as we find it today collecting found objects that speak to us.

We will then return to the circle for another round of sharing and close by making a spontaneous gift of beauty to Lake Superior as a group effort. This gift comes from the heart. The way we give and express our gratitude and connection to our friend, Lake Superior, will be unique to our group and the found objects collected during our time apart from the group and during the time of it’s creation. A picture of our gift will be taken and displayed on the Radical Joy for Hard Times and Nature Art Exploration website sharing our group’s Lake Superior Earth Exchange.

Special Notes:

• Feel free to bring a poem, song, or other artistic expression to share focused on the topic of water and/or a creative expression to share with the lake and those who attend.
• Please bring your own water. Food will not be made available at the event. To be considerate of people with allergies, we ask that you eat prior to the event.
• Nature Art Exploration does not assume any type of responsibility for participants involved. This is an adult event. You are responsible for your own safety. Please take care and caution during your period of exploration on the shores of Lake Superior. Gichi-gami is a powerful body of water. Please, respect that.  
• If for some reason the beach is closed due to water concerns, the event will be cancelled. Here is the Wisconsin Beach Health page which will give you the most updated advisories for Wisconsin Point Lot #1.

Founder and Executive Director of Radical Joy for Hard Times, Trebbe Johnson, has written the following books aligned with her work. I’m excited to read both in my continued work with practicing RadJoy! Click on the images below to learn more about her books.

Radical Joy explains the theme for the 2019 Global Earth Exchange to be DARING TO BEAR WITNESS. Together we dare to face the places we care about that are under assault and challenge what’s broken and ugly with creativity, compassion, and collaboration. We will be practicing RadJoy and leaving guerilla beauty, a spontaneous act of group creativity of found objects, as a gift for this place we all LOVE so much! LAKE SUPERIOR. For more information on practicing Radical Joy for Hard Times please check out their website.

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Nature Art Exploration hopes you can join us on June 22^nd to take part in the 2019 Global Earth Exchange! Feel free to “Contact Me” if you would like further information on the Lake Superior Earth Exchange. I would be happy to answer any questions you may have regarding the event. Thank you for joining Nature Art Exploration and thank you for considering practicing RadJoy on the shores of Lake Superior!