Called to the Sea
Roger Hanson, a retired school teacher and an ocean advocate, has always loved the sea. He was called to live near the ocean after a chance encounter with a whale many years ago. One day, while diving in Long Beach, California he happened upon a tiny species that seemed oddly out of place. He has since dedicated his life to protecting the habitat of the Pacific Seahorse, and he has come to be call... posted on Apr 29 2022, 1,695 reads

To Observe that Kind of Devotion
"Orion's poetry editor Camille Dungy recently sat down with poet, friend, and Orion board member Major Jackson to discuss their thoughts on literary stewardship, environmental writings complicated legacy, the sacred inner lives of Black children, small towns, urban parks, building community, talking to foxes, and connection to the natural world." Check out their conversation here. ... posted on Apr 28 2022, 1,693 reads

The Magnitude of All Things
Earth is our mother and when she suffers, we all suffer. Jennifer Abbott's climate change documentary "The Magnitude of All Things" helps us to see grief on a personal and global scale. When her sister died from cancer, Abbott's sorrow opened her up to the grief that is being experienced on a global level by people who are already losing their homes and lives due to climate change. The film is a r... posted on Apr 27 2022, 2,115 reads

How Much Is Enough?
"Over the next 20 years, a minimum of $35 trillion, and up to $70 trillion, in wealth will transfer from the post-World War II generation to the next younger generation. Most of that wealth will flow in the upper canopy of the wealth forest, between family members in the world's wealthiest 0.1%...But some beneficiaries of this system are working to disrupt it, with the help of financial advisers w... posted on Apr 26 2022, 4,233 reads

Why Did We Stop Believing that People Can Change?
"Belief in the fixity rather than the fluidity of human nature or maybe in guilt without redemption shows up everywhere -- not just in the formal legal system that decides questions of innocence, guilt and responsibility but also in the social sphere, in which we render verdicts replete with both unexamined assumptions about human nature and prejudices for and against particular kinds of people an... posted on Apr 24 2022, 3,304 reads

How to Break the Cycles of War and Violence
Anastasiia Timmer is a criminologist who was born and raised in Ukraine. Now based in California, Timmer studies why people commit acts of violence. She and her team of Ukrainian, Russian, and American researchers went to Ukraine in 2017, after the Russian invasion of the Ukrainian provinces of Crimea and Donbas. At that point, as Timmer points out, "people of Ukraine were suffering from war for m... posted on Apr 23 2022, 3,291 reads

Children, Anger Control and Inuit Wisdom
Traditional Inuit parenting is incredibly nurturing and tender. If you took all the parenting styles around the world and ranked them by their gentleness, the Inuit approach would likely rank near the top. (They even have a special kiss for babies, where you put your nose against the cheek and sniff the skin.) The culture views scolding -- or even speaking to children in an angry voice -- as inapp... posted on Apr 22 2022, 4,460 reads

Living in the Time of Dying
"This recent film, Living in the Time of Dying, made by the Australian film-maker Michael Shaw in response to his own dawning awareness of species extinction, asks bluntly: "Are humans likely to become extinct?" To find answers, Michael sold his home and with his partner Michelle Walker set off on a journey around the world to interview four people who have been speaking on the issue. The result i... posted on Apr 21 2022, 4,437 reads

I No Longer Sing With Only My Voice
"After I listened to a recording of Chelan Harkin's poem, called "I no longer pray," the words "I no longer sing with only my voice..." flashed into my head like a stroke of lightning. The qualities in the poem are like the seven synonyms for God, (Love, Mind, Soul, Spirit, Truth, Life, Principle) I learned about in Sunday School, except I only used six of them." 8-year-old poet Afton Wilder share... posted on Apr 20 2022, 6,275 reads

Shokunin and Devotion
"The Japanese word shokunin is often translated as 'artisan' in English. Although it isn't incorrect by definition, the translation seems to lose the spirit of what a shokunin does," says Sachiko Matsuyama, "I have never been interested in simply defining what a shokunin is. I believe the complexity of the shokunin spirit exists beyond the confines of an occupation. By drawing boundaries and defin... posted on Apr 19 2022, 3,682 reads