The first issue of JOY IS AN ACT OF RESISTANCE arrives in September 2023. Learn from seven people engaged in practices that will inspire you to take a chance. Their examples remind us that every act matters—a prairie started in Iowa provides important breeding grounds for birds that will travel to other regions and countries. We’re all connected—the curiosity of a teenager in LA extends to very old people in Europe and Asia. What might be considered a hobby — dancing — can connect younger generations to our ancestors.

Of course joy sounds like a good thing, something we want, but it often feels out of reach. Unlike happiness, which comes to us from outside sources — a good party, a new dress, a great vacation — joy is a choice. It’s the proverbial inside job.

And it by necessity, it lives in tandem with grief.

We have so much of the latter in our world. Many of us are paralyzed by it, even if we don’t entirely recognize it. We believe that if we fight back against the forces causing grief we’ll be subsumed by anger, or we’ll need to do things that we’re not comfortable doing.

So we stay a bit numb.

When we grow food and repair our clothes, when we show up as our true selves, when we walk slowly and notice the seasons, when we gift our time and skills to others … all of these are joyful acts that help us move beyond despair and invite the world to join us!