Thoughts in Passing
Artist Claudia Bicen spent two years meeting with, interviewing and drawing nine individuals approaching the ends of their lives. Through interviews, portraits and ultimately videos of their conversations, she sought to answer the question, "How should I live?" Her intent was also to "shine a light onto the darkness that covers death and dying in our culture and in doing so take away some of the f... posted on Apr 09 2019, 13,302 reads

Kazu Haga: The Creation of Our Beloved Community
Kazu Haga is a nonviolence trainer and founder of the East Point Peace Academy in Oakland, California. East Point Peace Academy envisions a world where historic conflicts are fully reconciled and where new conflict arises solely as an opportunity for deeper growth. Where the depth of human relations are so high that it allows each individual to attain their fullest human potential. Kazu works in p... posted on Apr 08 2019, 6,558 reads

Kindness as an Avenue to Awe
While many schools are emphasizing the importance of test scores and textbooks, Puget Sound Community School is focusing on something different: kindness and collaboration. Founder Andy Smallman recognized the importance of creating a safe space for students that encouraged the development of their unique gifts, fostered by a spirit of gratitude and present moment appreciation. In this Awakin Cal... posted on Apr 07 2019, 555 reads

Brink of Extinction
Anna Louisa first became interested in Faroese ponies because of a children's book. She soon learned that these enchanting creatures, ponies by size but often called horses due to their strength, were almost extinct. Between 1850 and 1920 large numbers of them were exported from their home in the Faroe Islands. By 1960 there were only five left in the wild. Fortunately they have made a remarkable ... posted on Apr 06 2019, 2,091 reads

Ceres Community Project
According to the food and agriculture organization there are 821 million people struggling with hunger worldwide. Though more prevalent in developing countries, it is present even in wealthy nations. The United States Department of Agriculture reports that 40 million Americans struggle to feed themselves and their children sufficiently. These households have difficulty purchasing adequately nutri... posted on Apr 05 2019, 4,784 reads

Elegant Simplicity & Right Relationship
"Elegant simplicity can only be built on the firm foundation of right relationships. Our crises-mental, personal, social, economic, environmental, political, cultural, and religious-- have their origin in disconnection and separation. The moment we see that all things are connected, that we are all related, that everything depends on everything else, we start to see solutions. [...] When all our i... posted on Apr 04 2019, 7,579 reads

Phil Cass: Shifting the Healthcare Paradigm
Phil Cass is making a difference in Columbus, Ohio. He describes how shocked he was to discover that physicians have become the #1 group of people who commit suicide in the U.S. Working with staff, he remade the culture of the medical association, and their affiliate corporations, into a highly participatory culture and spearheaded the creation a free health care clinic for the uninsured. Over 5,0... posted on Apr 03 2019, 1,992 reads

The Age of Overwhelm: Strategies for the Long Haul
"Report after report documents how--despite more technologies aimed at connecting people, ideas, and information--people of all ages continue to experience greater and greater social and personal disconnection. Why? Well, our body, mind, and spirit can only keep up with so much. When overloaded, we may disconnect because it all is too much or feels like it is too much. Disconnecting from our self ... posted on Apr 02 2019, 7,697 reads

Who Gets to Cry?
Climate change is destroying many places we love points out Trebbe Johnson, and while some of us turn away from admitting this, others are filled with sorrow. But here's what's most difficult: "Many of us are simply afraid that if we allow ourselves to wade, even for a moment, into the feelings of sadness for the living world that lap at the edge of our consciousness, we will find ourselves pulled... posted on Apr 01 2019, 6,527 reads

Befriending Our Despair
Joanna Rogers Macy is an environmental activist, author, and scholar of Buddhism, general systems theory, and deep ecology. In this short video she advises that pain alerts us to what needs attention. Pain is not the enemy of cheerfulness, but tells us there is suffering. When we face suffering, our hearts and eyes open to beauty. We are not alone in our despair and when we have the courage to spe... posted on Mar 31 2019, 3,559 reads