imagination is a magical garden where all plants and creatures find their Eden. Her stories, detailed images, and colours reveal a hidden depth, a reflection of a timeless soul, rich with experience, empathy, love and generosity.” —Paul Destrooper, Artistic Director, Ballet Victoria All photographs by Stefan Cremers.  My winter garden is quiet and lovely, with snow piled onto the shrubs and outlining the trees. For me, this is a time for resting and reflection, reading, drawing, and planning next year’s garden. Gardening has always been a part of my life. As a child, I spent summers playing in my grandfather’s stately and formal gar... posted on Dec 9 2021 (6,162 reads)

only have so many minutes here, but I want to leave you with a thought. Perhaps the economic system is a subset of the ecological system in which we live. Just imagine that. That it’s merely a subset of the ecological system in which we live. Rather than the economy is about taking the ecology and turning it into money. Maybe it’s the other way around. Maybe, and I want to suggest you think about this, that the fact that we even have an economy is given to us by the extraordinary generosity, the infinite bounty of the ecology. The economy is an opportunity to be economical with how we use the gifts of that extraordinary ecological system.” I remember it was like &hell... posted on Mar 12 2022 (2,971 reads)

forever. “I’m your neighbor from down the street, your neighbor from two towns over, I’m an Iowan, an American, I’ve been meaning to tell you that I’m very interested in whatever yard sign or bumper sticker or t-shirt you’ve placed to let strangers know something about you. I’ll bite, I’m biting and asking you please will you tell me more, why don’t you tell me more? I’m here to listen. 9. I think the relationship between my generosity and my greed would flip, and I would give away as much as I possibly could (instead of saving as much as I could) and save as little as I needed to survive. What getting and saving, what sa... posted on Mar 21 2022 (20,283 reads)

over me. And you say, I’m terribly sorry, I can’t do anything about that. And they say, But it’s not fair. And here you are, the people who have said it’s about fairness, and sometimes you have to say, It’s not fair, and we can’t do anything about it. But in the larger sense, when we as adults occupy ourselves with what’s not fair in the world, and we take our children with us and they hear and see and take part in the expressions of our own generosity, our own kindness, our own social activism — when I think about parenting, I think you said it before, about parenting as a spiritual practice. I think of social activism as a spiritu... posted on May 8 2022 (4,324 reads)

to presence — not a deferral of life but a celebration of it, of the myriad marvels that come alive as soon as we become just a little more attentive, a little more appreciative, a little more animated by our own elemental nature as “atoms with consciousness” and “matter with curiosity.” â„–5: hugging a friend Sophie began sharing the illustrated meditations on her Instagram (which is itself a rare island of unremitting delight and generosity amid the stream of hollow selfing we call social media) — each part record of personal gladness, part creative prompt. Delight begets delight — people began sending her their re... posted on May 17 2022 (6,412 reads)

when I became still, I was able to really see what was there. I have come to think about stillness as a prerequisite step for true creation to come into being. An Act of Kindness You'll Never Forget? I feel that my life in some sense is a lynnstich of kindnesses, selfless acts and forgiveness that I was honored to witness around me and be the recipient of. Without love, this world could not move forward an inch, and I know I would be nowhere in my life were it not for the grace and generosity of God and the people around me. There are many moments of unforgettable kindness I experiencedgrand and smallthat I thought of when pondering this question, but one that comes back to me m... posted on May 24 2022 (2,995 reads)

soil, soil structure. And yet — Tippett:The caregivers of the forest. Simard:They are. They’re the fundamental foundation of the forest. They’re the legacy of the forest that helps move it forward. Tippett:There’s this very quiet — there are these quiet sentences that I just want to put back — from you again: “There is a necessary wisdom in the give-and-take of nature, its quiet agreements and search for balance. There is an extraordinary generosity.” Simard:Yeah. You know, species, they don’t live in isolation. It is a world of give-and-take. It is a relationship of silent agreements between species. We all need each ot... posted on Jun 1 2022 (3,863 reads)

imaginary.   Within our working definition, post capitalist realities are possible pathways that share the following principles: Post anthropocentric: beyond the human-centric gaze and species exceptionalism, and towards the valuing of all Life. Trans-rationalist: where rationality is incorporated but not elevated beyond other ways of knowing, sensing and being. Post transactional: where acts of exchange are based on relational acts of genuine connection, reciprocity, generosity, cooperation and solidarity. Anti-patriarchal: where gender or sexual orientation do not determine socio-economic or cultural hierarchies. Post hierarchical: there may be functional, ... posted on Sep 20 2022 (4,475 reads)

from each other and find each other again.” That’s actual, that’s real connection. And anyone who’s married or in a long-term relationship knows that’s what it’s about. It’s about how do we find each other again and again. TS: You teach this practice that we can have a do-over. We can ask, “Are you willing?” And, “I’d love to have a do-over.” And I thought, it takes a lot of humility to do that and a lot of generosity just to even really be like, “I want—.” You really have to be in your heart to say, “I’d like to have a do-over. Is that OK with you?” I think it’s... posted on Sep 21 2022 (3,422 reads)

his heart, people immediately agreed. And he would add, “Instead of giving me one sixth of your land, would you pass it on to your landless brother and sister in your own village here?” He ended up walking 70,000 kilometers. And more than 5 million acres of land were just donated. 5 million acres! That is bigger than the size of Kuwait. That’s twice the size of Lebanon, almost as big as Israel.  No coercion, no compulsion, no loser. Just purely rooted in the virtue of generosity, compassion and connection. In 1955, when he was on the cover of Time Magazine, the caption under his photo simply read: “I’ve come to loot you with love.” Vinoba's... posted on Feb 2 2023 (8,665 reads)

instead of what it is that I can temporarily get a rush from. Nothing wrong with temporary rushes. Right? But I want more permanent stuff. I’m greedy. I want it to stay there all the time and I want you and everybody else to have it there all the time. Like never, ever stop, no matter what happens. I want that underlying energy to keep flowing, lifting you, supporting you and then we can just keep getting higher and higher, by letting go. TS: I might call that the deepest generosity and not greedy, Michael, but OK. So, I would say a huge focus of the book Living Untethered is this identification of what these blockages are. What are these blockages? And yo... posted on Feb 3 2023 (5,689 reads)

for the future of a democratic culture. This isn’t a trend that started yesterday; it emerged about a hundred years ago, but it is not yet so old that we cannot hope to change it. It is not engraved in human nature; in fact, it goes against human nature. My argument is that a democratic culture rests, not on any specific and unique juridical arrangements but first and foremost on a special form of interrelationships among people, one based  on mutual respect and trust, on generosity toward our fellow citizens and understanding for their intentions, and on a willingness to keep arguing over our differences, to keep believing even against some good evidence that if we ke... posted on Feb 13 2023 (2,391 reads)

be able to do what this child needed, be the father that he needed. But what also worried me in the days ahead was wondering about what kind of world my son was coming into. Was this going to be a world where people would be kind to him, where if he stumbled and made a mistake, people would forgive him and give him another chance? Where he would do the same for other people? Was it going to be a world that was driven by and informed by the core values of love, of kindness and compassion and generosity? Or was he going to be in a world that was driven by fear, where people were pitted against each other, where everyone was looking out for themselves? I know what kind of world I want for h... posted on Apr 14 2023 (3,898 reads)

as “the manner in which our consciousness is disposed towards whatever else exists,” he writes: The choice we make of how we dispose our consciousness is the ultimate creative act: it renders the world what it is. It is, therefore, a moral act: it has consequences. A century-some after William James insisted that our experience is what we agree to attend to, and two generations after Simone Weil asserted that “attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity,” McGilchrist adds: Attention changes the world. How you attend to it changes what it is you find there. What you find then governs the kind of attention you will think it a... posted on May 23 2023 (3,253 reads)

is Britain's senior Dharma teacher. Having once lived on 39 British pounds per year for ten years, he has sat beneath The Tree of Enlightenment in Bodhgaya, India and, so impacted by the experience, returned to Bodhgaya for years afterward to offer retreats there. For five decades, he has been teaching Dharma around the world for free. Living primarily on donations since 1970, Christopher has noted his intention to stay true to the spirit of dana, a practice of cultivating generosity. Christopher is a teacher of Awakening and Insight Meditation in the Buddhist tradition. He does not use the label 'Buddhist' for himself but expresses the deep benefits of his l... posted on Jun 6 2023 (2,232 reads)

and practical tools for getting better at managing our moods and feelings. Susan grew up in South Africa, teaches at Harvard Medical School, co-founded the Institute of Coaching and regularly shares ideas that make me stop and think—and rethink—about emotions. Hey Susan. Hi Adam. So excited to be here today. Adam Grant: Are you excited or are you just saying that because you're an expert in emotional agility? Susan David: I'm genuinely excited. A little bit fearful, a feeling of generosity, various things going on for me. Adam Grant: I wonder what you're afraid of. Susan David: Well, I think that there's always the challenge when one is bringing ideas to the world of wantin... posted on Mar 28 2024 (250 reads)

transformational path of Sufism. That is how I ended up practicing two religions.Janessa:  So inclusive and non-judgmental, and it's beautiful. Just a quick follow up from a caller, Carol. She asked if the spiritual alphabet is similar to the 99 names of Islam? Have you matched the sacred names to the alphabet?Mary Ann:  We haven't, but you're right. It is probably a direct match. I'd have to go through and do that though. But certainly, things like gratitude and love and beauty and generosity. I love this phrase, and I identified with this immediately when I really began to explore Sufism more deeply. There is this phrase about doing the beautiful, you want to do the beautiful, ... posted on May 5 2024 (2,561 reads)