The Buy Nothing Project Gift Economies
Liesl Clark and her family traveled to Nepal on a "quest to find answers." They returned home with a new perspective on community and a better way of living. Clark saw how the Nepalese cared for each other, insisting on sharing gifts equally within the community and taking responsibility for the aging, fragile, and infirm without regard to family ties. She believed these principles could be applie... posted on Mar 26 2021, 2,439 reads

Waiting for the Thaw
"It's about this time in the long stretch of winter that I begin to ache for spring. By March, I tend become a bit dulled to the beauty of winter. Though my prayer and meditation keep my heart open to seeing the passage of time and seasons with appreciative eyes, mostly I just want the cold days to be over. As the earth begins to thaw, we often want the process to hurry up. I long for bright flowe... posted on Mar 25 2021, 13,026 reads

My Mother Against Apartheid
"In 1955, six White women in Johannesburg said enough is enough when the government enacted a law to disenfranchise 'Coloured' (mixed-race) South Africans, rescinding their right to vote. Along with a wave of other women, my mother, Peggy Levey, joined this group. Their formal name was the Women's Defense of the Constitution League, but everyone called them the Black Sash. She was soon elected ... posted on Mar 24 2021, 4,650 reads

Once I Took a Week Long Walk in the Sahara
"Tracing an ancient route across the Sahara Desert once caravanned by pilgrims on their journey to Mecca, Anna Badkhen contemplates human movement across shifting landscapes, the impermanence of memory, and what remains eternal in the face of erasure."... posted on Mar 23 2021, 3,127 reads

Awakened Awareness
"Awakened awareness practices focus on dis-identifying with the conceptual mind, specifically the false self or ego that we imagine ourselves to be. To call the ego a false self is not to disparage it or even judge it. It is to name it as what it is: a psychological process with which we have become overly accustomed to identifying. The false self has no enduring qualityit is neither thing, noun, ... posted on Mar 22 2021, 7,451 reads

Parker Palmer Muses on the Season
"I will wax romantic about spring and its splendors in a moment, but first there is a hard truth to be told: before spring becomes beautiful, it is plug ugly, nothing but mud and muck. I have walked in the early spring through fields that will suck your boots off, a world so wet and woeful it makes you yearn for the return of ice. But in that muddy mess, the conditions for rebirth are being create... posted on Mar 21 2021, 14,303 reads

How to Be Resilient
One definition of resilience is: the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties. This past year, many of us have faced adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats, or significant sources of stresssuch as family and relationship problems, serious health problems, or workplace and financial stressors. Let this three-minute video be a meditation on resilience, taught by the rivers of the world.... posted on Mar 20 2021, 4,577 reads

She Convinced a Community to Love a 'Bad Omen'
Leptoptilos dubius is the name of a gangly stork, "Once close to extinction, the bird has rebounded in biologist Purnima Devi Barman's home state of Assam in northeastern India. And that success, according to widespread consensus, is primarily because of Barman, who has single-handedly transformed the species from a reviled nuisance to a beloved cohabitant among a surprisingly broad cross-section ... posted on Mar 19 2021, 5,636 reads

Grace in Uncertainty
"Jerry Takigawa sent me a copy of a little book he designed and published: 'Grace In Uncertainty.' At the beginning, he quotes Andre Gide, "Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But since no one was listening, everything must be said again." Then he lays out the book's structure. Part one, Premise: Recognize that consciousness is the foundation of everything. Part two, Practice: ... posted on Mar 18 2021, 3,333 reads

Changing the World One Map At A Time
Patrick Meier uses his various skills as a digital humanitarian and global-local activist to help silently transform the growth story of underdeveloped countries through technology. Over the past 15 years, he has worked around the world on a wide range of humanitarian projects with the leading international organizations including the United Nations, Red Cross and World Bank. In 2015, he authored ... posted on Mar 17 2021, 4,578 reads