A Case for the Porch
"Lately I've been trying to think like a porch. Trying to think between the natural and the human. Thinking how best to build during a climate crisis. I came across John Cage saying that progress in art "may be listening to nature." He thought this activity could best play out on a porch, where we can hear nature's symphony and then breathe our own masterpieces. Can we play our porches like instru... posted on Sep 25 2021, 3,922 reads

What Makes A Good Life?
What keeps us happy and healthy as we go through life? If you think it's fame and money, you're not alone but, according to psychiatrist Robert Waldinger, you're mistaken. As the director of a 75-year-old study on adult development, he shares three important lessons learned from the study as well as some practical, old-as-the-hills wisdom on how to build a fulfilling, long life.... posted on Sep 24 2021, 4,158 reads

Where I'm From...
Appalachian poet George Ella Lyon's poem, "Where I'm From," evokes the particular world of a particular childhood through a poem quilted from scraps and patches of memory... Memories of specific sights and sounds, objects, instructions, tragedies, and delights. It has been used in classrooms around the world as a prompt for people to write their own versions of, "Where I'm From." More recently in ... posted on Sep 23 2021, 6,743 reads

A Palestinian Woman Building Peace From the Bottom Up
Born in Jerusalem to respected Palestinian scholars and educators, Huda Abu Arquob's great-grandfather was one of the many Muslim Palestinians who took in and protected Jewish residents of Hebron during the 1929 massacre. "That story has not been properly documented," Huda says, "perhaps because it challenges the simplistic narrative of Palestinians and Israelis fighting for 3,000 years. I've felt... posted on Sep 22 2021, 3,575 reads

Prayer for Atheists
"Legend has it that the physicist Niels Bohr had a horseshoe hanging above his door. A colleague asked him why, to which he responded, "It's for luck." The colleague then asked him if he believed in luck. Bohr reassured him that as a scientist he did not believe in luck. Puzzled, the colleague asked again why Bohr had the horseshoe hanging above his door. Bohr responded, "I'm told that you don't h... posted on Sep 21 2021, 7,326 reads

Wholeness, Timelessness & Unfolding Meaning
In this interview, conducted two years before his passing, influential physicist-philosopher David Bohm discusses his insight into "the essential unbroken wholeness of the universe: the timeless order which lies behind physical phenomena, and the importance of the imagination for giving a meaningful understanding of reality."... posted on Sep 20 2021, 4,207 reads

Death Doulas Provide End of Life Aid
"The word 'doula' comes from the Greek word meaning "woman who serves," though most people associate it with someone who helps during birth to usher in life. In recent years, however, more people have come to recognize the need for as much assistance at the end of life as the start, part of the so-called death positivity movement that is gaining momentum in the United States and other countries. T... posted on Sep 19 2021, 7,885 reads

Between Grit and Grace
Preethi Srinivasan captained the under-19 Tamil Nadu women's cricket team to national championship in 1997, won a gold medal in swimming at national level, and was an internationally renowned student academically. At the age of 19, an accident left her paralyzed from the neck down. What followed over the next 2 decades is a journey of untiring grit and grace. Today, Preethi is co-founder of Soultr... posted on Sep 18 2021, 4,641 reads

Inside the Fight to Save an Ancient Forest
The ancient forests of the Pacific Northwest are home to giant old-growth trees, and many secrets, which science is just beginning to understand. These forests are our best climate change allies, storing huge amounts of carbon and retaining water, protecting communities from droughts, floods, and wildfires. But these forests are at risk of disappearing. In British Columbia on First Nations territo... posted on Sep 17 2021, 1,824 reads

I Am the Triangular Window in a Mud Hut
"I have overheard pale-skinned visitors to this refugee camp speak of windows as large as a cow and covered by glass that slides wide open. Those stories sound absurd. Such windows would be completely impractical! We Dinka windows allow in some air, of course; but first and foremost, we are designed for safety and comfort. Look at my size and shape: a triangle smaller than a cracked plate." In th... posted on Sep 16 2021, 4,940 reads