Singing: Most Companionable of Arts
"Singing is able to touch and join human beings in ways few other arts can. Alice Parker is a wise and joyful thinker and writer on this truth, and has been a hero in the universe of choral music as a composer, conductor, and teacher for most of her 90 years. She began as a young woman, studying conducting with Robert Shaw at Juilliard, and collaborated with him on arrangements of folk songs, spir... posted on Oct 24 2021, 3,533 reads

Old Growth: The Best Writing About Trees
To celebrate the release of "Old Growth," -- an anthology released by Orion Magazine-- of essays and poems about the lives of trees, Robin Wall Kimmerer held a conversation with Robert Macfarlane and David Haskell. The trio of celebrated nature writers discussed the legacy of trees in deep time, that they each detail in their most recent books, Braiding Sweetgrass, Underland, and The Song of Trees... posted on Oct 23 2021, 4,545 reads

For Love of Nectar: The Dazzling Sunbirds of India
When the sun is out in India, and if one is lucky to have access to a dense patch of native trees in flagrant, fragrant bloom, one is quite likely to see darting sunbirds. Sunbirds are to India what hummingbirds are to the Americas. Small birds with curved beaks that guzzle flower nectar. Dressed in an astounding colour palette that include hues as vivid as metallic green, lime yellow, deep hibisc... posted on Oct 22 2021, 5,590 reads

The Art of Engagement
Alice Fox manages a plot of land that provides her with food for her body, materials for her art, and sustenance for her spirit. Sustainability underpins all of her work. She looks closely at everything she finds on this plot of land, engaging with it, finding ways to utilize it or at the very least to appreciate it. By noticing the detail in everything she discerns the possibilities it offers. Th... posted on Oct 21 2021, 2,075 reads

Beauty & Science: A Conversation with Edward Johnson
Dr. Edward Johnson, a distinguished research scientist, died earlier in 2021. His fundamental work in molecular cell biology opened new fields of study, contributed to the work of two Nobel laureates and has been important in the understanding and treatment of a range of diseases and neurologic disorders. On the occasion of a weeks getaway in Jemez Springs, New Mexico, in an impromptu conversation... posted on Oct 20 2021, 1,605 reads

Inhabiting the Ground of Being
"The Realization Process is a way of uncovering an experience of this very subtle consciousness that we actually can experience pervading our whole body. We experience that and we transcend that individuality at the same time. We experience oneness, this ground of being, pervading our own body, and everything around us. So, in other words, our consciousness becomes subtle enough to pervade all of ... posted on Oct 19 2021, 3,071 reads

A River Reawakened
"In September 2011, I stood on a river overlook with children from my daughters elementary school, all of us transfixed by a giant jackhammer pounding cement to rubble. Below us, a waterfall raged through the first notch carved in the Lower Elwha Dam, as dust rose in the September sunshine, drifting over Douglas fir and cedar crowns. Trees were the only spectators old enough to remember when the E... posted on Oct 18 2021, 3,559 reads

Soul Biographies: Nic Askew
Creator of Soul Biographies, Nic Askew's life took an unexpected turn in 2005 when a lucid daydream to pick up a film camera and use it in a profound fashion consumed him and dissolved any internal doubt. He describes this moment as one of "knowing" what he just had to do, as opposed to "believing" or "wanting" something.
Since that day, Nic has used this camera to capture bare human prese... posted on Oct 17 2021, 4,562 reads

Touch as Nutrition
Is it any coincidence that when a friend or loved one does something nice for us, we feel "touched"? As John Tuite, founder of The Centre for Embodied Wisdom, tells us, "We mistakenly think that touch occurs on the periphery of our self, a skin thing." But as he shares, touch is a crucial piece of our health and development, and one we all too often go without as we get older. ... posted on Oct 16 2021, 45,078 reads

Falling Through Our Stories
On a 1995 trip to Peru, Jolanda van den Berg's heart was captured by the street children of Cusco. Six months later she left her home in Amsterdam and moved to Peru for good.Over the last 25 years, her work has supported thousands of vulnerable children through a network of unconventional programs.Six years ago in the immediate aftermath of a traumatic event, Jolanda experienced a profound dissolu... posted on Oct 15 2021, 4,785 reads