Radical Love Project

About

The Radical Love Project is an ambitious-sounding name for something that’s more like a quiet life-purpose. It was born when we (Tracy and Angela Harms) realized we didn’t want to plan something or create something. We wanted to honor and better understand what we were already doing. We wanted an answer for people who asked us what we were up to.

We’d determined that we wanted to center our lives on compassion, because… well, because it’s what matters, isn’t it? This life is what grew from that intention.

For years, we tried to do it without paying attention to Jesus, because, frankly, what we’d heard from Christians made us want to run as far in the other direction as we could. But we discovered two things.

First, “Christian America” does not speak for Jesus. He spoke for himself just fine, thank you. Second, following the light is much easier (for us) with the help of our brother.

So, as it says on the front page of this website, our intention is to carry the love of God, our neighbors and ourselves into every moment, in the way of Jesus. But we have learned from many teachers: Jesus, the Buddha, each other, our neighbors and friends.

We believe that we’re called to love with a radical, scandalous dedication that sometimes looks a little weird. In every single moment, we are called to honesty, compassion, and awareness. Of course, that doesn’t mean we accomplish it. What it means is that, with a combination of meditation, prayer, and kindness, we try to support one another in the attempt.

There are lots of aspects to this journey. Some of the most interesting are

  • dinner in the park. We found ourselves turning away from people who were hurting, hungry, asking for help. But how to stop? We grabbed some dinner and took it to the park under the bridge to eat and share. Since then, we’ve developed some great friendships there, and we go back every week. We don’t preach… instead we try to open ourselves to the love of God, in hopes of being channels for his love and grace.
  • gathering, two or three. It’s said that wherever two or three are gathered in attention to God, God is with them. We get together weekly to listen to one another, pray, cry, dance… It’s our version of church. Or un-church.
  • right livelihood. We earn money through our work at Web Presence, making websites for small businesses. We do this with the same intentions, to be awake, authentic, and full of love in every moment, as best we can. We work for the joy of creating and collaboration, and to meet our needs and the needs of our brothers and sisters. We work to love.
  • life in our house. There are six of us here, and we’re committed to treating one another with love and to treasure one another’s voluntary choices. We’re advised by Jesus to “love your neighbor as yourself,” and we take that seriously. We do this by focusing on self-awareness, openness and empathy.

You can learn more about us by poking around the website, and we’d love to learn more about you, too. Leave comments or send us email. We love making new friends!

Love,

Angela