On Language and Landscape
"Light does not use syntax. Robins do not speak in syllables as we would recognize them. And so, language is always late for its subject in nature. I'm fascinated by language's affordance when it comes to thinking about and shaping our relations with place and what we might uneasily call nature; I'm also interested in the binds that it places us within." Robert Macfarlane shares more.... posted on Dec 19 2019, 2,834 reads

Esther Perel: The Constant Dance Between Me and You
"We all come into this world with a need for connection and protection and with a need for freedom. And from the first moment on, we will be straddling these two needs -- what is me, and what is us? The common parlance today is, I need to first work on myself; I need to first feel good about me; solve me before I can be with somebody else, and I find that also a strange thought. You know who you a... posted on Dec 18 2019, 10,752 reads

Silas Hagarty: Just Start Walking
Silas gives an analogy about how he approaches making his films. If I needed to get somewhere, I could ask, Richard could take me two hours west of here? You might end up saying, "Let's do it!" But the approach I've always loved is just to start walking. You just start going in that direction. What I found is that oftentimes people would stop and ask, "Where are you walking to?" And they'd give me... posted on Dec 17 2019, 2,645 reads

Do You Remember Your Song
"When a woman in a certain African tribe knows she is pregnant, she goes out into the wilderness with a few friends and together they pray and meditate until they hear the song of the child. They recognize that every soul has its own vibration that expresses its unique flavor and purpose. Then the women attune to the song, they sing it out loud."... posted on Dec 16 2019, 11,873 reads

This Is Your Brain On Music
"Musical training doesn't just improve your ear for music -- it also helps your ear for speech. That's the takeaway from an unusual new study published in The Journal of Neuroscience. Researchers found that kids who took music lessons for two years didn't just get better at playing the trombone or violin; they found that playing music also helped kids' brains process language."... posted on Dec 15 2019, 5,330 reads

On Courage
What does it mean to be courageous? Is it something seen outwardly, as when someone overcomes an overwhelming physical obstacle, or is it "the measure of our heartfelt participation with life, with another, with a community, a work, a future"? This short video provides an eloquent answer through powerful images that encourage further consideration of the question.... posted on Dec 14 2019, 2,918 reads

How to Overcome Our Biases? Walk Boldly Toward Them
Our biases can be dangerous, even deadly as we've seen in the cases of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner, in Staten Island, New York. Diversity advocate Vern Myers looks closely at some of the subconscious attitudes we hold toward out-groups. She makes a plea to all people: Acknowledge your biases. Then move toward, not away from, the groups that make you uncomfortable. In a fu... posted on Dec 13 2019, 8,905 reads

The Lost Words
"It had come to our attention that words were slipping out from the mouths and the minds of children, but it was only once the book was complete and beginning to make its way out into the world that this really hit home. In a class full of children I asked who knew what a wren was. Wren, that small brown bird, feathers small as splinters with a sharp song so loud that threads its way through hedg... posted on Dec 12 2019, 6,837 reads

How an Army of Women Resurrected a River
Women in Vellore, India, have resurrected the Naganadhi river and the agriculture of the area that were almost lost to drought. In 2014, the women took matters into their own hands and worked with engineers and hydrologists to build 600 recharge wells by hand: digging wells, making cement rings, placing the rings and stones, and planting drought-resistant saplings along the river basin. This labor... posted on Dec 11 2019, 1,794 reads

The Biggest Little Farm
"Many people have dreamed of leaving the city for the country, to live in a way that would reflect their concerns about the environment. John and Molly Chester, are a couple who did just that; they left their home in Los Angeles and started an organic farm. The Chesters tried to turn a dry and soil-depleted 200-acre parcel into a lush, organic farm. They were determined to tend fruit orchards and ... posted on Dec 10 2019, 3,603 reads