Practicing the Art of Wonder: Lessons from the Hummingbird
"A Broad-billed Hummingbird hangs for a few seconds, not three feet away. The brilliant sapphire gorget flashes for an instant, and then the tiny bird is gone in a shot, his raspy cry fading like a lost thought into the oaks. I close my eyes and try to feel the impact that the hundreds of hummingbirds I've seen over the past few days have had on my psyche. The swirl of their presence, their diminu... posted on Jul 15 2021, 7,841 reads

Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul
"We know things in the core of our being that we have not necessarily been taught. And some of this deep knowing may actually be at odds with what our culture or religion or nation has tried to teach us. This book is about reawakening to what we know in the depths of our being, that the earth is sacred, and that this sacredness is at the heart of every human being and life-form. To awaken again to... posted on Jul 14 2021, 5,049 reads

Indigenous Knowledge and Gift Giving
"In our way we are always told not to ask for anything. We are always told in our community, as a practice, that when we have to start asking for something, that's when we're agreeing that people be irresponsible. Irresponsible in not understanding what we're needing, irresponsible in not seeing what's needed, and irresponsible in not having moved our resources and our actions to make sure that ne... posted on Jul 13 2021, 8,630 reads

Seven Lessons Learned from Leaves
"I've been thinking more deeply about leaves --what these simple gifts of nature can teach us, and how they can help us overcome the challenges we face in life. Over the past year, I jotted down thoughts in a vintage leather-covered notebook that I keep on my desk. And in the spirit of this deeper exploration, I used a macro lens on my camera to reveal a closer look at the wondrous structure of le... posted on Jul 12 2021, 12,033 reads

Earning Humility: My Story of Meeting Rollie Grandbois
"It was a bright August morning and I had the shop all to myself. Since my wife and I were staying nearby, we'd driven past the place before on the way to town. To tell the truth, from the look of it, I'd decided it was best avoided. But this morning, I'd decided to go against my snap judgments. Besides, I needed a little break. So as an exercise, I thought I'd go out for a walk and strike up a co... posted on Jul 11 2021, 2,661 reads

Mary Oliver: I Happened to Be Standing
The poems of Mary Oliver seem like prayers that anyone can pray. Spacious and simple, expansive and ordinary, they don't require us to believe in anything in particular. But they do ask us to pay attention to the fleeting and particular space of a moment we are living through, which she has touched so tenderly. Here you can listen to her reading one of her poems: "I Happened to be Standing."... posted on Jul 10 2021, 9,434 reads

Letters to a Young Poet: Communing with Rilke's Prophetic Musing
"A new translation of Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet has been released in a world in which his voice and vision feel as resonant as ever before. In ten letters to a young person in 1903, Rilke touched on the enduring dramas of creating our lives -- prophetic musings about solitude and relationship, humanity and the natural world, even gender and human wholeness. And what a joy it is ... posted on Jul 09 2021, 4,442 reads

Returning to the Village
For those of us who live in urban areas, what does returning to a life in the village really mean? What is the impulse that moves folks to reverse the direction of migration of their recent ancestors to the city? What can living on the land, growing your own food, and using your hands to make clothing and shelter offer souls hungering for a real connection to the Earth? Here, Hang Mai, a Vietnames... posted on Jul 08 2021, 3,558 reads

100 Thank Yous
For a year and a half, artist Lori Portka painted her gratitude through individual pieces of art for 100 people who have made a difference in her life. In her effort to truly live a life of gratitude, Lori learned that gratitude grows, and grows, and grows. "The more that I focused on gratitude, the more I was grateful for." This beautiful film captures Lori's motivation and some of the reactions ... posted on Jul 07 2021, 2,925 reads

A Story Waiting to Pierce You
"A true encanto, an incantation, this book is pure music. It sings to the reader. This is the real thing. In each paragraph of the book, the Spirit is there. This is what the native people of the Americas have been trying to say, but were never permitted to. This song is the song of wisdom that we native people have not been allowed to sing." These words by Joseph Rael (Beautiful Painted Arrow) a... posted on Jul 06 2021, 2,482 reads