Spirit Bathing for the Worried and Beleaguered
"As expressed in a thousand ways in the Brussats book "Spiritual Literacy: Reading the Sacred in Everyday Life", the Spirit resides not only in formal religious rituals and spiritual practices, but in everyday life -- nature, a cats eyes, a beautiful painting, a colorful salad, a lover's embrace, a new place. This means that I can Spirit Bathe anywhere, anytime. I can be in my kitchen or kneeling ... posted on Dec 06 2019, 7,255 reads

Milo Runkle: Expanding Our Sphere of Concern
After witnessing the brutal handling of a live piglet brought into school for dissection, Milo Runkle discovered that the current legal system offered no recourse for him to press charges on behalf of the animal. The experience spurred him to found Mercy for Animals when he was 15 years old. Over the last 20 years, that organization has become an important group to assist in the move away from fac... posted on Dec 05 2019, 5,032 reads

Why We Need Darkness
Diane Knutson is a former National Park Ranger and the creator of the Lights Out Movement in Rapid City, South Dakota. Light pollution not only impacts our view of the universe, but our environment, our individual health, and energy consumption. Not long ago, the starry night sky was clearly visible -- now, songbirds mistake city skylines for the rising sun, eight out of ten children will never se... posted on Dec 04 2019, 2,778 reads

Time Out of Joint: Shakespeare in Prison
Rehabilitation through the Arts brought a screening of three films based on Shakespearean works to an upstate New York prison with powerful results. The timeless themes of Shakespeare's writings, themes such as what it means to be a man, to be human, to live in a society with many ills which also provides possibilities for growth and transformation, are discussed after the films are viewed by the ... posted on Dec 03 2019, 1,859 reads

Mark Tredinnick Heals with Poetry
Poet Mark Tredinnick is the recipient of multiple international poetry prizes, who experienced a period of depression or "spiritual catastrophe," when he lost his moorings. In this interview he explains how poetry helped him find himself again through his "welcoming of the wholeness of my life, including the sorrow and the pain."
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Slow Media
Jennifer Rauch took a six-month break from the Internet, iPhone, email and ebooks. Instead of unplugging she says, "I was replugging into relationships, into nature and into my community." She argues that Carlo Petrini's (Slow Food) principles "good, clean, fair" also apply to digital media. In regard to "clean"-- is the production of electronic products environmentally sustainable? With regard to... posted on Dec 01 2019, 1,795 reads

Breath of the World
Who among us does not depend on fresh air as the source of our life and well-being? As one Ecuadoran elder said, "It is from the Amazon that the breath of the world comes; without the amazon the world would not breathe.". Our rain forests are all that stand between us and catastrophic climate change. Watch this video and then share it with everyone you know who likes to breathe fresh air.... posted on Nov 30 2019, 1,920 reads

John Barton: A Certain Mathematics
As children, we naturally make art out of our lives. We paint with our fingers, color fantasies with crayons, build living room pillow forts, and dance and hum as we walk. Jim Barton, though, has continued his art-making through his adult life -- transforming decaying tree stumps, junkyard wooden doors, and scrap wood into mystical carvings, giant buddhas, and elegant salmon soaring into the sky. ... posted on Nov 29 2019, 2,164 reads

A Chorus of Thank Yous
"Thanksgiving is a formal holiday for giving thanks, for sharing community with family and friends, but its also the holiday that represents most vividly the paradox of feeling gratitude even as we suffer or cause the suffering of others...For me, Thanksgiving is about paradox, about the challenge to do or think, be and hold opposing thoughts or circumstances at once. It is gratitude for the human... posted on Nov 28 2019, 4,050 reads

Why We Turn to Mr. Rogers
"Here's the thing: Mister Rogers almost never taught us that we should be kind. There wasn't much should at all in the Neighborhood. The shoulds that did subtly emerge were more like suggestions. "You might consider sharing who you are through the arts. May I suggest that you find ways to express your feelings? May I remind you, once more, that those expressions don't have to hurt you or anyone el... posted on Nov 27 2019, 12,978 reads