The Rise in Giving Across Africa
"Douglas Ng'ang'a stands in the middle of the "slum library" he runs. Only he doesn't take credit for the 3,000 books housed in his childhood home in Nairobi's Mathare Valley. "The books just showed up," he says. Well, not exactly. His neighbors brought them. Ng'ang'a funds the library by working as a driver. He started the collection with 200 of his own books. Members of the community spread the ... posted on Oct 01 2019, 2,190 reads

Creating a World That Works for All
In a world with overwhelming problems, there can be little reason for hope. In this excerpt of the book, Creating A world That Works For All, Sharif Abdullah is unflinching in what we face: self-destruction. Our world does not even truly work for the select few. The solution is simple: inclusivity. Our lives are inextricably linked. "Inclusivity is the basis for a world that works for all." We mus... posted on Sep 30 2019, 2,346 reads

The Zookeeper's Wife
There will always be a need to tell powerful stories from some of humanities darkest times. This rings especially true for stories about the Nazi's and the Holocaust because we have a resurgence of the same sentiment that led to one of the worst regimes in history. Diane Ackerman wrote a story based on real life historic heroes that remind us that we can fight against oppression in a non-violent w... posted on Sep 29 2019, 4,437 reads

I Couldn't Let Them Die Alone
Sister Helen Prejean is best known for her 1993 memoir, Dead Man Walking, about her role as a spiritual adviser to a convicted killer on death row. The story was adapted into an Oscar-winning film starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn. Prejean has accompanied six prisoners to their executions and has been at the forefront of activism against the death penalty. "In [their] last moments, I was amaze... posted on Sep 28 2019, 3,160 reads

Protect. Restore. Fund.
Climate activists Greta Thunberg and George Monbiot talk about solutions to the problem of anthropogenic global warming: a combination of leaving fossil fuels in the ground and protecting and restoring living ecosystems like forests, mangroves, swamps and seabeds that can pull enormous quantities of carbon from the air and store them safely, naturally. Current government subsidies around the world... posted on Sep 27 2019, 1,923 reads

Call of the Forest: The Forgotten Wisdom of Trees
"Call of the Forest" is a documentary that follows visionary scientist, conservationist and author, Diana Beresford-Kroeger, on her journey to the most beautiful forests of the northern hemisphere. From the sacred sugi and cedar forests of Japan, the ancient Raheen Wood of Ireland, the walnut and redwood trees of America, to the great boreal forest of Canada, Beresford-Kroeger tells us the amazing... posted on Sep 26 2019, 7,415 reads

Wild Mind: Reclaiming Our Original Wholeness
Our human psyches possess, as capacities, a variety of astonishing resources about which mainstream Western psychology has little to say. By uncovering and reclaiming these innate resources, shared by all of us by simple virtue of our human nature, we can more easily understand and resolve our intrapsychic and interpersonal difficulties as they arise. These resources, the four facets of the Self, ... posted on Sep 25 2019, 8,339 reads

My Summer of the Catbird
Nature has a language that we have forgotten but carry in our unconscious minds. Beyond our even knowing, we are called along with the birds to listen to our inner seasons and longings. As author David G. Haskell has said, "In the voices of birds, we hear augury, portent, prophesy. We are drawn across boundaries into other places, other times." In this beautiful story about a Gray Catbird, we fin... posted on Sep 24 2019, 6,236 reads

Diane Ackerman: 100 Names for Love
Diane Ackerman, best selling author of A Natural History of the Senses, An Alchemy of Mind, and The Zookeeper's Wife, has built a reputation on her poetic sensibility and uncanny knack for scouting out connections between the heavens, Earth, and everything in between. In her latest memoir, One Hundred Names for Love: a Stroke, a Marriage, and the Language of Healing, Ackerman navigates between the... posted on Sep 23 2019, 2,973 reads

Giving Directions
Like most of us, you've probably been asked for directions at least once in your life. While men are notorious for failing to admit when they're lost and women less so, little research has been done on how directions are imparted and the characterization of the individual giving them. "Giving directions is a form of storytelling," says Akiko Busch. "When people advise you to take the longest, most... posted on Sep 22 2019, 3,814 reads