Speechless
"One morning I woke up with no voice, just a faint, breathy whisper. This would be upsetting anytime, but on this particular day it felt as if I were in a fairy tale. In a matter of hours, I was supposed to tell a story and teach mindfulness meditation at the Rubin Museum of Art in Manhattan. And I couldn't make a sound." Parabola's Tracy Cochran shares more in this thought-provoking essay on the ... posted on Aug 01 2019, 7,673 reads

Time for the Wild
In a short and strikingly beautiful cinematic journey to wild places we are asked to think about how we are leaving the natural world for generations to come. What if our children's children could never lay eyes on wild country because it is already destroyed? Spending time in the wild is not a past-time, the narrator tells us, rather it is a biological necessity like water, air and food. The vide... posted on Jul 31 2019, 2,364 reads

Dental Care Where There is No Dentist
In Teeth: The Story of Beauty, Inequality, and the Struggle for Oral Health in America, Mary Otto describes how American dentistry came to the point of producing Hollywood smiles for some while leaving enormous gaps in care for others. In this excerpt, she describes a model of accessible, affordable dental care that is used successfully in other countries and now, in some parts of the United State... posted on Jul 30 2019, 4,441 reads

The Literary Prize for the Refusal of Literary Prizes
Highly acclaimed author Ursula K. Le Guin discusses the problematic nature of receiving awards. Among those she says she would like to have is the Sartre Prize for Prize Refusal. Named after Jean-Paul Sartre for refusing the Nobel in 1964, it is coveted by authors who refuse awards in the hopes of being nominated for the Sartre Prize for Prize Refusal. The irony is not lost on Le Guin who refused ... posted on Jul 29 2019, 1,553 reads

Befriending Ourselves: An Invitation to Love
Is self-improvement sometimes a disguised version of self-agrression? If the focus is always on how I might be "better" in the future, it can be hard to extend toward myself a hand of friendship and compassion. I miss out on the present miracle of who I am NOW. Maybe moving from a perspective of improvement toward one of healing actually begins with loving my current messiness.... posted on Jul 28 2019, 8,957 reads

On Calligraphic Perception: A Conversation with Jane Hirshfield
In an interview begun in 2012, when being honored with the Donald Hall-Jane Kenyon Award in American Poetry, Jane Hirshfield shares her experiential journey towards "the quick brushstroke of singular perception" for which her poems have come to be known. Acknowledging the grace of her gift she says, "I never take for granted that I'll be able to write. There's no acorn stash of ideas in my desk dr... posted on Jul 27 2019, 4,327 reads

The Work of Love is to Love
"My own time on earth has led me to believe in two powerful instruments that turn experience into love: holding and listening. For every time I have held or been held, every time I have listened or been listened to, experience burns like wood in that eternal fire and I find myself in the presence of love. This has always been so. Consider these two old beliefs that carry the wisdom and challenge o... posted on Jul 26 2019, 9,112 reads

Wild Imagination
"Anguish over the diminishment of our world, the destruction of Earths life support systems, and the extinction of species is deep in our shared human psyche, though largely unexpressed. So many of us can only dimly imagine our way through the psychic and physical debris to a regenerated, thriving, Earth community. Yet the mysterious human imagination itself may be our best resource for experienti... posted on Jul 25 2019, 8,311 reads

Wild Wisdom
Jenny Cullinan dedicates her time to studying and learning from bees in the wild. Spending time with any species in the wild over time leads to understanding of that species as it truly is. She calls this greater understanding wild wisdom. With an allergy to bee stings, instead of being afraid of them she chose to learn how to be with them. She urges us to look at nature's genius and use it as a g... posted on Jul 24 2019, 2,242 reads

The Lost Words: Reclaiming the Language of Nature
"In early 2015, when the 10,000-entry Oxford children's dictionary dropped around fifty words related to nature -- words like fern, willow, and starling -- in favor of terms like broadband and cut and paste, some of the worlds most prominent authors composed an open letter of protest and alarm at this impoverishment of children's vocabulary and its consequent diminishment of children's belonging t... posted on Jul 23 2019, 12,482 reads