Holding the Feathers of Grief and Joy

In this 2023 conversation with Justine Willis Toms, multimedia producer Trebbe Johnson advocates opening to the possibility of wonder from surprising sources, so we can recognize that, even in the bleakest of times, beauty is possible. 

Johnson is the founder and director of the global community Radical Joy for Hard Times, and is devoted to finding and making beauty in hurt places. She observes that a new kind of heroism is needed in facing the dire problems of the 21st century -- that we can’t confront any emergency, personal, local, or global, by hoping and praying that the problem will go away or waiting for someone else to act. Johnson suggests that we not deny our heartbreak, rather we must give expression to our grief through tears, creative work, and sharing our lives and our stories with others. Although that beauty can’t permanently replace our losses, our sorrow, and the dire problems we’re facing, it can break through the walls of powerlessness and melt despair.

Trebbe Johnson is the author of several books including:


- Radical Joy for Hard Times: Finding Meaning and Making Beauty in Earth’s Broken Places. (North Atlantic Books 2018
- Fierce Consciousness: Surviving the Sorrows of Earth and Self (Calliope Books, 2023)

Interview Date: 10/6/2023   Tags: Trebbe Johnson, Michael Meade, The Woman in the Cave, Dylan Thomas, green fuse, grief, beauty, Kim Stanley Robinson, Ministry Of The Future, disbelieving, disbelief, Halaco Plant, hurt places, superfund places, Global Earth Exchange, Personal Transformation, Health & Healing, Ecology/Nature/Environment