Wendell Berry: The Peace of Wild Things
The Peace of Wild Things is a beautifully animated film of a poem written and read by Wendell Berry as part of the Poetry Films series of the On Being Project, which features animated interpretations of beloved poems. This poem is a warm invitation to return to our early memories of peace and joy, perhaps lying in the grass on a sunny hill, listening to bird and insect sounds, when suddenly, for a... posted on May 18 2021, 4,343 reads

David Hoffman: A Positive View
David Hoffman's career in filmmaking goes back over 58 years. "I picked up a camera in 1964 and found that from behind the camera, I could ask questions and find out things I didn't know about, or that scared me...By the time I was 25 I was getting opportunities to interview really big folks. And every chance I could come up with I focused on what "ordinary" people would say to me -- people I bega... posted on May 17 2021, 2,800 reads

Burned Pages Don't Lie: A Genealogy Search
"A genealogy search can yield many things and go down many paths, but at its core, it is a story waiting to be told and a person to tell it." Ten years ago, artist Pat Benincasa, received a unique mission, one that arrived in the form of a charred book of Italian love poems. It had belonged to her grandfather. "What was he doing with this book and why was it burned?" What follows is the story of P... posted on May 16 2021, 4,590 reads

To Heal the Human Heart
The science of empathy is now one of the most celebrated subjects of psychological and neuro-psychological enquiry and it has the potential to transform human society in spectacular ways. For instance, if a human being's central nervous system carries blueprints for empathy, and if the health and vitality of one's empathy circuits depend on one's environment from conception through adulthood, what... posted on May 15 2021, 43,233 reads

Please Touch the Art
This compelling video tells the story of an artist, Andrew Myers, who is so moved by a blind man's joy at "feeling" three dimensional art that he is inspired to create three dimensional portraits to be experienced by people who are blind or visually impaired. Why is touching artwork so taboo? According to the producers of the film, "Prior to the mid-1800s, tactile interaction was commonplace for v... posted on May 14 2021, 1,475 reads

The Spell of the Sensuous
David Abram's book, "The Spell of the Sensuous" draws on diverse sources, ranging from Balinese shamanism, and Apache storytelling, to his own experience as an accomplished sleight-of-hand of magician to surface the subtle and far-reaching influence of the natural environment on human cognition. Here is a selection of powerful excerpts from the book.... posted on May 13 2021, 3,651 reads

Tapping into the Wisdom of the Gut
"Even though Ive long held a holistic view of life, my scientific career has ultimately taken me full circle, from a reductionistic focus on the biology of brain-gut interactions required for succeeding in my career as a neuroscientist, back to the concept of the interconnectedness of the health of humans and of the environment, and the microbiome, with diet and the mind playing the key role in th... posted on May 12 2021, 5,222 reads

Learning from Navajo Nation's Generosity in a Pandemic
"Last year, the Irish people raised nearly $2 million dollars for the Navajo and Hopi Nations so they could protect themselves from the pandemic. At the time, the infection rate in the Navajo community -- 2,304 cases per 100,000 was the highest in the country. It was a show of thanks to Native Americans for a $170 gift sent by the Choctaw to the Irish people at the height of the potato famine in ... posted on May 11 2021, 3,747 reads

The Book of Untranslatable Words
When you start with a heartfelt offering, you never know where life may take you next. Read on for the tale of Ella Sanders, whose creative illustrations about untranslatable words grew from a blog post into a published book now out from Random House. You'll also get a sampling of some marvelous, untranslatable words from around the world. Like Mangata -- Swedish for "the road-like reflection of t... posted on May 10 2021, 47,967 reads

Alphabet Heart Sutra: A Mother's Day Offering
"The Alphabet Heart Sutra came to me whole, arriving with the light of morning. I followed an inner prompting and immediately wrote it down. Never having composed poetry or prayer in acrostic form before, I was quite surprised by the structure it took. Upon reflection, I wondered if perhaps impressions from childhood, reciting acrostic Hebrew prayers and passages, filtered into the Alphabet Heart ... posted on May 09 2021, 8,191 reads