Slowing Down in Urgent Times
"To slow down in times of crisis--times that in so many ways require action on all fronts--can seem counterintuitive. We are constantly met with pressures to achieve more, act faster and be better. Dr. Bayo Akomolafe disagrees. Urgent times, he urges, call for quiet; for rest and respite. Instead of ramping up, we must surrender, and wait to witness the transformative potential of stillness. Dr. A... posted on Jul 22 2023, 2,798 reads

Beannacht (Blessing) for Our Death
Tracey Schmidt's poetic reading of a Blessing for Our Death reminds us of the complexities of life - how we can be gatekeepers and entrance points, light filled and vulnerable, lonely and loved, all at the same time. She praises life and exhorts us to do the same, to "sing as if tomorrow will not come because one day it will not." This singing of life's praises enables us to live fully, "as if hom... posted on Jul 21 2023, 4,145 reads

Michael Nye: Images & Voices on the Edge of Revelation
Wherever he travels, Michael Nye carries an antique 8x10 camera and a voice recorder. He has been aptly described by National Public Radio as "part reporter and part anthropologist". His projects have taken him to Iraq during the first Gulf War, refugee camps in Palestine, as well as Siberia, China, Morocco, and Mexico. His documentaries, photography and audio exhibitions, "Children of Children --... posted on Jul 20 2023, 2,577 reads

Ode to an Ugly Cat
"Idly is not a beautiful cat. There is something about the way he looks at you that will set you on edge and it will take you a long time to get over this feeling. The edges of his ears are jagged, a little bit frayed. Old cat ears. He has scratches on his nose. He always has something sticking to his whiskers and there is nothing you can do about that. He would rather have cat litter stuck to his... posted on Jul 19 2023, 5,297 reads

The Medicine of Memory
"Every life is like a day. We begin the night before and, in the darkness, we are formed as a word that strikes a spark. This spark lands like a seed coming to the ground in the soul of the womb. Then miraculous growth pulses like wildfirean unstoppable explosion of unimaginable geniusthe exponential roar of universal proportion. Every life well-lived holds in its hearts core the knowing that all ... posted on Jul 18 2023, 4,860 reads

Honey Church
"Our first summer in Baltimore. The first year of our marriage--your only marriage, my second one--when my kid became our kid. This house, our home. We watched the parade of ants--polite little soldiers marching single file along the kitchen baseboards in a thin and steady stream. You took a white sheet of paper from the printer, slipped it under their quick feet, then whoosh, like a magician and ... posted on Jul 17 2023, 2,090 reads

Mark Nepo: The Half Life of Angels
"How do we know our own authenticity? How can we return to our hearts when we find we've left them? As we evolve and change along our journey, how do we relate to the 'former selves' in our past? Tami Simon and poet-philosopher Mark Nepo address these questions and more, as they discuss his creative process; his new book, The Half-Life of Angels; and how we can each touch the ever-present and whol... posted on Jul 16 2023, 3,801 reads

Carrie Newcomer: Asking the Right Questions in Song
Carrie Newcomer is an American performer, singer, songwriter, recording artist, author and educator. The Boston Globe described her as a "prairie mystic" and Rolling Stone wrote that she is one who "asks all the right questions." According to a 2014 PBS "Religion and Ethics" interview, Newcomer is a conversational, introspective songwriter who "celebrates and savors the ordinary sacred moments of ... posted on Jul 15 2023, 2,813 reads

Love's Work: Gillian Rose on the Value of Getting it Wrong
""There is hardly any activity, any enterprise, which is started with such tremendous hopes and expectations, and yet, which fails so regularly, as love," the humanistic philosopher and psychologist Erich Fromm wrote in his classic on the art of loving. In some sense, no love ever fails, for no experience is ever wasted -- even the most harrowing becomes compost for our growth, fodder for our comb... posted on Jul 14 2023, 2,467 reads

Never the Same River Twice
""Before I arrived in Japan, I was intoxicated by its tradition of wandering poets. They weren't roaming around lakes and hills like Wordsworth, but proceeding along a rough, pointed path, in the way of Matsuo Basho. His most famous work--Narrow Road to the Interior--could suggest both the remote areas of northern Japan through which he was walking, and the inner terrain that the act of walking wo... posted on Jul 13 2023, 1,891 reads