How Imagination Shapes Reality
Have you ever imagined something so vivid, so profoundly tangible and seemingly a part of you, that you weren't sure if it was a dream or reality? Well, it may just be both! Novelist and writing teacher, Gabriel Cohen, unites science and spirituality, and provides insight on how "a growing body of research supports what spiritual contemplatives have known for millennia -- that the human capacity... posted on May 06 2013, 105,845 reads

Trees: The Alternative Cathedral
When I feel off-balance, shaken by the blows of life or mired in the inertia of not caring, I seek contact with nature, which I call a primary source of re-centering. Contact with nature offers a gift of presence, helping us to open up to the world around us, rather than pursue distracting thoughts or emotions. Even for an urban dweller, walking in a park fills one with a sense of one's roots in t... posted on May 05 2013, 23,131 reads

Caught on Russian Dashboard Cameras!
In Russia, many motorists have dashboard cameras to record their driving and ensure justice in accident claims. Every so often though, they capture something unexpectedly beautiful -- like people helping others to cross the street, or get up from a fall or out of a jam -- despite rain, snow, and traffic. Some even put their own lives at risk. Check out this video of Russian drivers expressing the... posted on May 04 2013, 8,118 reads

A Poem of Kindness That Traveled The World
Some years ago Arab-American poet Naomi Shihab Nye wrapped a poem around an unexpected experience of both distress and kindness that she encountered at an airport in Albuquerque. She sent it off to exactly two friends, who passed it on to friends, who passed it on to friends. And in this way it circled the globe. Nye later remarked that this spontaneous series of people passing the poem on had res... posted on May 03 2013, 106,540 reads

Stay A Lover of Little Things
"No matter what big cities you go off to and big opportunities you are graced with, always take time to acknowledge the little things. Never give up on the things that make you smile, because smiling is one of the most important things we can do in this world. Find time to just wander. With No Direction. No Plan. No Time Restrictions. Look for beauty everywhere you go. The ladybugs on the windowsi... posted on May 01 2013, 58,024 reads

Books of Ice
Did you ever think that comets were more than interstellar rocks and dust, that they might contain amino acids and nucleotides that build living things? Today, many scientists think that perhaps that's the way life began on Earth 4 billion years ago. Imagine the spinning arms of the galaxy casting comets over the planet, protolife smacking onto the broken lava plains, like seeds of ice, until basi... posted on Apr 30 2013, 3,508 reads

Seva Cafe: Serving Generosity on a Platter
Siddharth Sthalekar quit a lucrative job to explore alternatives to the premise of accumulation. He and his wife Lahar journeyed across India and soon woke up to the beauty of the gift economy -- a system where goods and services are extended unconditionally and without any formal quid pro quo. Their experiences moved the couple to join "Seva Cafe" -- a restaurant powered by generosity rather than... posted on Apr 29 2013, 31,407 reads

Reviving the Neapolitan Tradition of Suspended Coffee
"Tough economic times and growing poverty in much of Europe are reviving a humble tradition that began some one-hundred years ago in the Italian city of Naples. It's called caffe sospeso --- "suspended coffee": A customer pays in advance for a person who cannot afford a cup of coffee...The barista would keep a log, and when someone popped his head in the doorway of the cafe and asked, "Is there an... posted on Apr 28 2013, 7,472 reads

Guiding Rage into Power
San Quentin is one of the nation's most notorious maximum security prisons. But it is also known for an unusual inmate rehabilitation program. Insight-Out's Guiding Rage Into Power (GRIP) Program offers an in-depth journey into the participants' ability to understand and transform violent behavior, track and manage strong impulses, and replace these behaviors with an attitude of emotional intellig... posted on Apr 25 2013, 4,121 reads

The Beauty of Wabi Sabi
In The Beauty of Wabi Sabi, Author Leonard Koren writes about the history of wabi-sabi, a Japanese aesthetic of anything that is imperfect, impermanent, or incomplete, which is, of course, the antithesis of the Classical Western idea of beauty as something perfect, enduring, and/or monumental. Rather, its attraction resides in the inconspicuous and overlooked details, in what is hidden, and tentat... posted on Apr 23 2013, 31,067 reads