Quincy Troupe: A Poet's Journey
Troupe, stationed in France and a terrifically gifted basketball player, suffered a knee injury. While recuperating, he began to write an awesomely bad novel. Seeking advice, a friend sent him to a little French guy with glasses. Troupe didn't know it at the time, but the little guy with glasses was Jean Paul Sartre. His advice, "Why don't you get a little notebook and write in it every day? Just ... posted on Jul 10 2018, 2,555 reads

Cooking Stirs the Pot for Social Change
Every time we step to our stoves to make a meal we're engaging with the society around us. Each ingredient that we use, every technique, every spice tells a story about our access, our privilege, our heritage, and our culture. The foods and dishes we consume are all part of larger forces that impact our lives. Our appetites and what we crave are the result of our place in the world at that time. E... posted on Jul 09 2018, 8,096 reads

The Lonely Patience of Creative Work
Poet Rainier Maria Rilke believed that patience was vital to creative work: "Being an artist means, not reckoning and counting, but ripening like the tree which does not force its sap and stands confident in the storms of spring without the fear that after them may come no summer. It does come. But it comes only to the patient, who are there as though eternity lay before them, so unconcernedly sti... posted on Jul 08 2018, 11,754 reads

Pushing Through: A Poem for Grieving Hearts
Elaine Mansfield shares how Rilke's poem, Pushing Through, helped her to manage the grief she felt with the loss of her husband. The poem gives testament to the fact that we can push through the grief into a transformation into something larger than ourselves.... posted on Jul 07 2018, 37,290 reads

Pearl Fryer's Unusual Legacy
Located on a short and quiet side street of the main road entering Bishopville, the garden sits on the left side of the road and a bank of pine trees lends shade and depth at the back of the property. An archway leads visitors to the left side of the property. It was through this archway that I stepped onto Fryer's garden for the first time. In life-sized letters cut into the grass and planted wit... posted on Jul 06 2018, 10,411 reads

The Practice of Walking
When was the last time you connected with nature, paused to take note of your surroundings, or admired a simple sunrise? The hurried way by which we often live our lives can distract us from the beauty of the natural world that surrounds us. Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee and Hilary Hart suggest that the simple practice of walking can help reconnect us to the web of life, and the soul-awakening moments it ... posted on Jul 05 2018, 19,574 reads

How Gratitude Can Transform Your Workplace
While you may not associate gratitude or expressions of appreciation with the workplace, they're beginning to have a powerful impact on how employees relate to one another, as well as rates of satisfaction, stress, and even sick days. Many organizations have been developing ways to overcome the barriers that often inhibit expressions of thanks among employees, and finding that the effects extend f... posted on Jul 04 2018, 10,487 reads

Circles of Time
In the Northern (and Southern) hemispheres, time is marked by seasonal changes, but in the forests of Bali the processes of growth and decay proceed at different rates all over the forest, all the time. According to Balinese theory, each living being moves on its own time scheme, and events occur when these touch, when things or creatures interact with one another. This view of time as applied to ... posted on Jul 03 2018, 7,041 reads

Nature is Medicine -- Even in a Prison Cell
Nalini Nadkarni, a biology professor at the University of Utah who has pioneered techniques for studying tree canopy communities in tropical and temperate forests, started "Moss-in-Prisons," a project in which prisoners joined a research/conservation effort to counteract the destructive effects of collecting wild-grown moss from old-growth forests for the floral trade. "We learned that the inmates... posted on Jul 02 2018, 11,372 reads

Grateful Parenting
A parent who lives gratefully will role model gratefulness and infuse the home with grateful practices. Beyond this, grateful parenting also suggests being grateful for one's particular child, being aware and appreciative of the gifts and qualities that child has. It suggests respecting one's child as a person, and all that ensues from such an open positive attitude. Gratitude for your child, incl... posted on Jul 01 2018, 17,424 reads