Civic Beauty Without Permission
It wasn't long before Tony and I were standing on San Jose's Santa Clara Street, cars whizzing by, looking at a vintage concrete bridge. Its sides were tiled. In some places, the tile had been broken off, vandalized. Each panel featured colorful, original designs. The work, obviously, had required thousands of hours. But it wasn't finished and now stood in benign neglect. What happened here? I ask... posted on Jan 13 2017, 3,358 reads

12 Questions Around Volunteerism
In this thoughtful piece ServiceSpace founder Nipun Mehta fields twelve probing questions on how to nurture and sustain a volunteer culture."Since 1999, ServiceSpace has been volunteer-run. It's a constraint and an asset. It opens us up to sensing multiple forms of capital...Leadership turns into laddership. Compassion is contagious; instead of pushing, we count on the pull. The metaphor shifts fr... posted on Jan 12 2017, 19,889 reads

11 Tips to Leading a Creative Life
In this TED article, Elizabeth Gilbert, author of "Eat, Pray, Love" and the new book "Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear," offers wit and wisdom for people living with creativity -- which, according to her, is everyone! Creativity is not always easy to tap into, but thankfully there are lots of things we can do to help. To start, we can reframe "creativity" as "curiosity," consider fear boring... posted on Jan 11 2017, 29,076 reads

Kindful Kids: Top 10 of 2016
"The beginning of another new year is the perfect time to reflect, as a family, on memorable moments of togetherness and inspiration from the year gone by and to express gratitude for all that it offered. It is also an opportunity to plant seeds for the intentions you want to cultivate at both a personal level with your families and, more broadly, to plant seeds of goodness for the change you wish... posted on Jan 10 2017, 10,710 reads

The Organic Food Company That Puts Ex-Offenders Back to Work
While many employers avoid hiring those who were formerly incarcerated, one Pennsylvania company actively seeks them out. Lancaster Food Company makes a point of finding and hiring people who need help getting back on their feet. According to founder Mike Miles, it's a segment of the population that needs jobs just like anyone else, and should not be denied the chance to live healthy and productiv... posted on Jan 09 2017, 10,311 reads

Three Ways to Keep Technology from Ruining Your Relationships
We all know there's nothing like a warm smile, loving hug, sympathetic eyes, shared laughter, or long talks. These are the things that make us human and happy, and they are best done in person. Yet sometimes we are too busy to get together. Enter technology, with promises of improving relationships. However tempting, technology needs to be limited. While Facebook, Instagram, and e-mail give us the... posted on Jan 08 2017, 20,102 reads

Physicist David Bohm on Creativity
The past century has sprouted a great many theories of how creativity works and what it takes to master it, and yet its innermost nature remains so nebulous and elusive that the call of creative work may be as difficult to hear as it is to answer. What to listen for and how to tune the listening ear is what the trailblazing physicist David Bohm explores in his essay in On Creativity, concluding th... posted on Jan 07 2017, 21,207 reads

Educating Our Children's Hearts
In November 2016, a university in Vadodara, India hosted a panel discussion titled "Education for Compassion: Rethinking Means and End," seeking to answer how schools, parents, and communities can prepare children to lead more compassionate rather than competitive lives. One of the panelists, Meghna Banker, is a graphic designer, volunteer, and a full-time mother home-schooling her daughter. In he... posted on Jan 06 2017, 18,964 reads

How Mindfulness Can Defeat Racial Bias
There might be a solution to implicit racial bias, argues Rhonda Magee: cultivating moment-to-moment awareness of thoughts, feelings, and surroundings. "In my own work, I identify, develop and examine the efficacy of a set of practices that intentionally link inner and outer work to raise awareness about race and racial experience in our lives, with a focus on personal, interpersonal, and systemic... posted on Jan 05 2017, 11,923 reads

Top 10 Kindness Stories of 2016
Every year KindSpring shares a selection of the most powerful stories they've received over the last twelve months. In the spirit of anonymity these real-life stories are often posted by people who choose to use a "kindness alias". Some of the stories are about children and teenagers who have stumbled on creative ways to flex their kindness muscles, others are about adults of different ages, natio... posted on Jan 04 2017, 19,554 reads