Nightshift at the Marriott
An emergency search for a room in a town where all hotels were full brought the author and his jet-lagged wife at midnight to a new Marriot-in-construction, as yet seemingly manned by only one or two staffers. A whole line of room-seekers vied for their attention with customers with unmade beds. In a tense, strained situation, the author begins to admire the young staffers doing their best, and a ... posted on Aug 22 2017, 9,666 reads

Elie Wiesel on How Our Questions Unite Us
What do leadership and loneliness have in common? What is the difference between solitude and isolation? How might we live through to the other side the intense feelings of being alone that can come upon us? Maria Popova explores these rich and subtle questions in this Brain Pickings article. She delves into a rare essay, "The Loneliness of Leadership" written by holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel.... posted on Aug 21 2017, 7,202 reads

To Be Content Is to Be Grateful
Even after the most traumatic events, we can still find contentment. One way to achieve this is through gratitude. When Cynthia Mee lost everything in a house fire, instead of looking at it as something destructive, she saw it as educational -- grateful for the life lessons she never would have encountered had it not happened. She was grateful for being alive; the fire hadn't killed her. The Red C... posted on Aug 20 2017, 12,265 reads

The Three Sacred Tasks: A Climate Scientist & Father Reflects
Disconcerted by the dramatic changes underway in Earth's climate systems, Climate scientist and father Peter Kalmus set out on a quest to change his life and the world. A quest that led him ultimately to cut his climate impact to less than a tenth of the US average, while simultaneous increasing his sense of joy and fulfillment. What follows are two excerpts from his new book "Being the Change: Li... posted on Aug 19 2017, 9,528 reads

Rosanne Cash on How Science Saved Her Life
In a prelude to her reading of Adrienne Rich's poetic tribute to Marie Curie, Roseanne Cash discusses the insights she gained as she battled to find a cure to her debilitating headaches. She realized the source of her creativity 'comes from the same room as her deepest pain' and argued that we have to listen deeply to our inner truth: "Persist and verify... The power that we abdicate to others out... posted on Aug 18 2017, 6,973 reads

Algorithms & Love: Dancing with the Creative Tension of Our Time
"The data we can extract, the data we handily give up for the sake of short-term convenience or simply out of ignorance, is of monumental proportions. But we extract all this data to what end?" In a recent talk, ServiceSpace founder Nipun Mehta paints a vivid picture of today's world -- a world where algorithms powered by big data undergird almost every field of human endeavor, and have brought us... posted on Aug 17 2017, 22,067 reads

Enrique Martinez Celaya: Self and Beyond Self
The work of artist Enrique Martnez Celaya speaks for the dignity of interiority in a world absorbed by the external. Having essentially earned a PhD in quantum electronics, widely read in philosophy, a poet and writer, few are more qualified. He observes, "I don't think the last century will be remembered as the age of computing or nuclear power, but the age when entertainment finally took over ou... posted on Aug 16 2017, 6,519 reads

Experiments in Kindness
Audrey Lin is a volunteer extraordinaire with ServiceSpace. With a degree in Peace and Conflict Studies, Lin has volunteered at the Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad, India; at Karma Kitchen in Berkeley, California;and has served as an educator on both the east and west coasts of the United States. While not everyone has the ability to travel abroad to volunteer, Lin's life and perspectives remind us tha... posted on Aug 15 2017, 2,722 reads

Spotlight on Seniors Who Are Changing the World
Retirement is a time finally away from bosses and schedules, stress and assignments. Yet, once retired, many miss the sense of purpose and community their jobs provided. Where retirement once called to mind visions of rocking chairs and mid-day snoozes, many in the Baby Boomer generation are shaking things up, turning their focus in retirement to encore careers and volunteerism. In this Spotlight ... posted on Aug 14 2017, 14,812 reads

Let Compassion Heal Us: An Intern Examines Suffering
"Being a ServiceSpace summer intern in these past months, I have been guided into a circle of genuine friends and mentors. As part of my internship I interviewed various people in the community about their relationship to pain and suffering. One of the lessons I received is that if we hold space for each other, open our hearts, listen deeply with our full presence, detach from any projections or j... posted on Aug 13 2017, 11,822 reads