The Art of Lying Fallow
"I suspect our ability to ask the unanswerable questions that Hannah Arendt knew are the heartbeat of civilization is intimately related to our capacity for dwelling in a particular state of being beyond the realm of our compulsive doing. Bertrand Russell called it "fruitful monotony." Adam Phillips called it "fertile solitude." Walt Whitman called it "loafing." The Buddhist tradition describes it... posted on Apr 20 2023, 4,887 reads

Granddaughter's Eyes: 21-Day Climate Action Challenge
"Granddaughter's Eyes" is a music video that invites us to pay close attention to the Earth, to love her deeply and take action to heal her wounds. The song reminds us that every act of attention is an act of reciprocity, generating wonder and joy, perpetuating the gift. When we fall in love with the living world, a profound intention emerges from our attention, a longing to protect and honor her.... posted on Apr 19 2023, 4,074 reads

When Relishing Joy is A Radical Act
"For Persians, one of our most precious ways to summon joy is with poetry. I remember one night, in particular, in my home city of Shiraz, Iran, during the war. While sirens blared and the electricity was shut off, warning of an imminent attack, my family and I (feeling especially brave) snuck to our rooftop to watch the anti-aircraft missiles shoot into the air. To my 7-year-old eyes, the brillia... posted on Apr 18 2023, 25,811 reads

Mumbai's Improbably Famous Hijab-Wearing Teen Rapper
""I go in an auto even to the fanciest of places," she says. Saniya needs to be in the venue at least an hour in advance to do sound and music checks. "If my father has a customer in his auto already, he has to drop them off wherever they say first," she says, checking the time on her plastic wristwatch. On this spring Sunday, the auditorium is teeming with people from the posh neighborhoods of ce... posted on Apr 17 2023, 1,607 reads

How Long Has It Been Since You Smelled a Flower?
"For forty years I have worked at the nexus where language intersects with the lives of prison inmates, and it has proven to be one of the most exciting intersections imaginable...Since 1974 I have directed a number of prison writing workshops, all for male prisoners, in the Arizona State Prison. The writing that is collected in this issue of Orion was selected from that of the hundreds of writers... posted on Apr 16 2023, 1,385 reads

The Red Dress
The Red Dress is a multi-year, award-winning, global, collaborative embroidery project. It was conceived by British textile artist Kirstie Macleod, who began the Red Dress in 2009. Initially exhibiting the dress as an installation, Macleod sat in a clear cube wearing the dress and working on its embroidery. Over the next 14 years pieces of the dress traveled across the globe, and were continuously... posted on Apr 15 2023, 10,814 reads

Vivek Murthy: To Be a Healer
"We need a modicum of vitality to simply be alive in this time. And were in an enduringly tender place. The mental health crisis that is invoked all around, especially as we look to the young, is one manifestation of the gravity of the post-2020 world. How to name and honor this more openly? How to hold that together with the ways weve been given to learn and to grow? Who are we called to be movin... posted on Apr 14 2023, 3,933 reads

Mighty in Contradiction: Love Powerfully
"I used to think the opposite of love was hate. But life experience tells me that's not true. Hate is so tinged with other emotions, including love! No. In my understanding the opposite of love is power. Love accepts and embraces. Power refuses and crushes opposition. Love is kind and knows how to forgive. Power is competitive and takes others into account only when it stands in the Winner's Circl... posted on Apr 13 2023, 2,108 reads

How Did You Become A Writer?
"How did you become a writer? Is a question asked of me surprisingly often when I visit schools, which I much enjoy not only as part of my overarching subtle devious plan to get on the good side of the children who will soon run the world, but also for the consistent entertainment of their artlessly honest questions (the best ever: Is that your real nose?), and for the sometimes deeply piercing de... posted on Apr 12 2023, 1,808 reads

It's Not A Thing You Do. It's A Thing You Are
"I think people just want to feel like they're home like there's no one they have to be and there's nowhere else they have to be. Here we are. It's enough. You belong. There was never any condition to that, ever. You distance yourself and you say, "Well, they're wrong over there. They should believe what I believe." When all along, you could wrap your arms around them, everyone, no matter wha... posted on Apr 11 2023, 3,121 reads