The Deaf & Blind Artist Who Never Gave Up
The story of Emilie Gossiaux, a native of New Orleans who now lives and works in New York City, is nothing short of extraordinary. At the age of 5, Gossiaux began to suffer from an untreatable disorder that caused her to start losing her hearing. Years later, in yet another cruel twist of fate, Gossiaux was in an accident that left her blind. Remarkably, she continued to follow her love of art and... posted on Feb 24, 18942 reads

Lee Hoinacki: Conscience & Courage
Lee Hoinacki, author of four books, ex-Dominican priest, scholar and deeply connected with Ivan Illich, was a remarkable man. One example: having left academia to become a subsistence farmer he found he needed money to help his daughter. He began looking for a job, "Then it hit me, why am I trying to get one of these respectable jobs? That's the worst thing I could do! That's what I left years ago... posted on Feb 3, 17274 reads

How to Transform Stress Into Courage and Connection
"Stress doesn't always lead to fight-or-flight, says Kelly McGonigal. It can also activate brain systems that help us connect with other people." In this article, McGonigal summarizes the social science research that explains how a certain response to stress changes the brain's biochemistry in surprising ways.... posted on Jun 29, 22343 reads

Six Pillars of the Wholehearted Life
In what has been named as one of the best commencement speeches of all time, Parker Palmer, author, educator, and founder of the Center for Courage and Renewal, shares six pillars of a wholehearted life. The first, be reckless in matters of the heart: "Fall madly in love with life. Be passionate about some part of the natural and/or human worlds and take risks on its behalf, no matter how vulnerab... posted on Nov 3, 60224 reads

How to Listen to Pain
In this thought-provoking Q and A, Greater Good's book review editor Jill Suttie asks author Brene Brown about the intricacies of her book 'Rising Strong.' One of the key points of the book is how we all react -- or 'listen' -- to the intense pain we may feel when we experience shame in our lives. And it is how we respond to those feelings that can either hinder our emotional well-being, or lead u... posted on Feb 25, 20956 reads

4 Reasons to Cultivate Patience
As virtues go, patience is a quiet one. It's often exhibited behind closed doors, not on a public stage: A father telling a third bedtime story to his son, a dancer waiting for her injury to heal. In public, it's the impatient ones who grab all our attention: drivers honking in traffic, grumbling customers in slow-moving lines. We have epic movies exalting the virtues of courage and compassion, bu... posted on Apr 7, 0 reads

How Imaginative Storytelling Expands Our Scope of the Possible
""We must always take sides," Elie Wiesel urged in his spectacular Nobel Prize acceptance speech. "Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented." And yet part of the human tragedy is that despite our best intentions and our most ardent ideals, we often lull ourselves into neutrality in the face of injustice -- be it out of fear for our own... posted on May 7, 9707 reads

Buried Treasure: The Story of a Marriage
"Like most marriages, I guess, we were a mixed bag of personality differences, varied preferences, unexamined childhood traumas, weaknesses and strengths, hopes and passions. I think he and I partnered each other with as much love and courage as we could, making every mistake in the book on a daily basis but trying to learn from them and carry on." After her husband's passing away, writer Carolyn... posted on Sep 14, 19643 reads

How to Cultivate Ethical Courage
Have you ever been in a situation where, morally, you know how you want to act or respond, but instead react differently due to outside pressures and influences? If yes, you are certainly not alone. This insightful article from the Greater Good Science Center, offers up three useful practices that can help you stay true to your core values.... posted on Oct 1, 17570 reads

Leadership & Authentic Self Esteem
"There was a time when we believed self-esteem to be the royal road to flourishing...However, later studies showed that increases in self-esteem did little for our happiness or performance, but ample for our egos. Professor Roy Baumeister's work with self-esteem showed that we'd been raising a generation of narcissists who went on to wreck havoc in their lives and in their workplaces. It now appea... posted on Oct 18, 16739 reads

Gifts for Gifted Children
"What gifts can we offer gifted children? How can we who are their guardians do justice by them? The first gift is not to praise them for their talents alone. Just as a beautiful child is often praised only for their beauty, and grows simultaneously vain and insecure, an intelligent child can easily learn that their mind is what makes them lovable...Instead, give these children the gift of praise ... posted on Sep 28, 34093 reads

Can Love Stories Change the World?
Deep within us all lies a tender heart. A heart that's been wounded, heroic, or generous. That guides us with a whisper, or drives us like a sergeant. No matter who we are, where we live, or what we've done, we all have stories with our hearts as protagonist. Love stories. Matt Hopwood believes these powerfully personal, emotive narratives can be transformational for both individuals and communiti... posted on Jan 14, 13390 reads

The Art & Inspiration of Laurel Burch
Those who are familiar with Laurel Burch's hopeful, whimsical, colorful art might be surprised to find she was struggling with pain for most of her life; her outlook was the polar opposite of how she felt physically. Diagnosed with severe osteopetrosis at the age of 7, Burch's bones would easily break or fracture just from a fall or bump. Raising two children on her own was quite a challenge not j... posted on Feb 16, 4355 reads

Brother David Steindl-Rast on Matters of Heart
When Brother David reached out to his readers of Integral Yoga Magazine in the 1970s to write him on any matter on life and the spirit, one reader responded with an inspired request on matters of the heart. What do we mean when we talk of the heart space? Is it courage? Faithfulness? In his response, Brother David illuminates his view on what it truly means to life from love - in a heart-centred e... posted on Jul 17, 11120 reads

This Incredible Fact of Being Alive:
"I remember writing somewhere that art took me over before life did. I think of myself, and other artists, as the growing edge of a 30,000-year old body of people who made the drawings in the caves, the Pompeii murals, Sumi-e paintings, Rembrandt, Picasso, Grandma Moses. The artists before us were helping to keep the world alive, as working artists are today. We just happen to be occupying the uni... posted on Sep 19, 3176 reads

Burundi Genocide Survivor on How Running Helped Him Heal
In 2013, Gilbert Tuhabonye spoke with Celeste Headlee on National Public Radio about running, forgiving, and healing. On the 20th anniversary of the genocide of the Tutsis, he recalls how he, his classmates, and teachers were beaten, locked in a burning building and left to die. He was the only survivor. An Olympic class runner before this tragedy, running became his physical and emotional therapy... posted on Jan 10, 3902 reads

The Courage to Feel: E.E. Cummings on Art, Life and More
In the face of pressure to conform, expressing oneself is not only an art, but an act of bravery. "To be nobody-but-yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting," wrote poet e.e. cummings, who eschewed literary form, bunked tradition, and created his own style of poe... posted on Jan 8, 11193 reads

Five Habits of the Heart
In Habits of the Heart, Parker Palmer describes ways of seeing, being, and responding to life that involve our minds, our emotions, our self-images, our concepts of meaning and purpose that are critical to sustaining society. These five habits are: an understanding that we are all in this together; an appreciation of the value of "otherness"; an ability to hold tension in life-giving ways; a sense... posted on Jan 2, 23053 reads

The Butterfly Child
At 14 years old, Jonathan Pitre appears to have a superhuman ability to deal with the constant pain of epidermolysis bullosa, the rare disease that has been a part of his life from infancy. In this moving and inspiring video we get a glimpse of his life and that of his devoted mother, as they face daunting challenges with love, strength, courage and the heroic ability to reach out and inspire othe... posted on Mar 17, 4932 reads

How to Hardwire Resilience into the Brain
Mental resources like calm, grit, and courage help us cope with and push through obstacles in our own lives. But how do we cultivate them? The key is knowing how to turn passing experiences into lasting inner resources built into our brains. This skill, positive neuroplasticity, is not a quick fix, but you can change your brain for the better by working it the same way you would work a muscle. As ... posted on Apr 24, 26648 reads

A Miraculous Life of More
"What is it like to be in the midst of a miracle? The idea of a miracle sounds so warm and delicious, the kind of thing you would aspire to experience in a minute, right? Well, in fact, here on earth we are in the middle of miracle school, whether you remember enrolling or not. And, much like life itself (a miracle in its own right), it’s not all sunshine and rainbows." In this uplifting pi... posted on Jul 25, 13255 reads

9/11 Brought Them Together. They've Been Spreading Love Since
On a day when division and hate became tangible on a large scale in America, three minsters from different religions were moved by their faith to make peace. 9/11 marked a violent awakening of hate for some, but for Rabbi Ted Falcon of Bet Alef Meditative Synagogue, Reverend Don Mackenzie, a minister and head of staff at the University Congregational United Church of Christ, and Jamal Rahman, a M... posted on Oct 13, 5946 reads

The Gift of Presence and the Perils of Advice
Parker Palmer is the founder and senior partner of the Center for Courage and Renewal. His work teaches us to connect with others through our authentic self. His courses help to develop courageous leadership and collectively evolve our spirits for social change. With humor and heart, Parker shares his perspectives on advice giving vs the gift of our presence. Leading us into presence with uncondit... posted on Jan 1, 15174 reads

My Word of the Year
"My word of the year is listen. Its one of those words whose meaning is in its music. Listen is a quiet word, that half swallowed L and diffident I and softly hissing S. It defies the clamorous words it absorbs, the words that have defined this year, the shouts and roars, the bray and bluster. Listening is hard when the sounds around us grow mean and ugly. And listening takes particular courage in... posted on Jan 6, 8816 reads

Befriending Our Despair
Joanna Rogers Macy is an environmental activist, author, and scholar of Buddhism, general systems theory, and deep ecology. In this short video she advises that pain alerts us to what needs attention. Pain is not the enemy of cheerfulness, but tells us there is suffering. When we face suffering, our hearts and eyes open to beauty. We are not alone in our despair and when we have the courage to spe... posted on Mar 31, 3547 reads

The Courageous Mary Oliver
Lisa Starr shares her insights from the last years of her friend Mary Oliver's life. From this deep perspective of love - we see Mary's courage, strength and generosity. She lived her craft - listening for the words - to the very end - using them to transform the heartbreak of living into things of beauty.... posted on May 26, 31907 reads

Cultivating Courage in Young People
The youngest generations of our world are shaping the future. With extraordinary drive and determination, they are paving the way to a society in which their voices are heard and their opinions matter. This article explores how we can help them as they build on their strengths, develop resilience, and stand up for what they believe in. Tips include allowing them to embrace their failures and honor... posted on Jun 18, 6193 reads

Bronnie Ware: Living Without Regrets
"Bronnie Ware is an author and speaker whose bestselling book, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying, is based on her time as a palliative care worker. In this episode of Insights at the Edge, Bronnie outlines these five major life regrets with Tami Simon and discusses the experiences in end-of-life care that inspired them. Bronnie explains how most regrets arise from a lack of courage and why people ... posted on Aug 12, 13450 reads

On Courage
What does it mean to be courageous? Is it something seen outwardly, as when someone overcomes an overwhelming physical obstacle, or is it "the measure of our heartfelt participation with life, with another, with a community, a work, a future"? This short video provides an eloquent answer through powerful images that encourage further consideration of the question.... posted on Dec 14, 2922 reads

Courage & Vulnerability: Corona & the Wisdom of Elders
"In every crisis of my life, learning has helped me find my way through. That means paying attention, allowing myself to feel as well as think, looking at things from different angles, gathering the best info available, trying to connect the dots, and 'living the questions' when the answers elude me." For more than five decades, Parker Palmer has written and spoken about subjects ranging from cont... posted on Apr 6, 17111 reads

Into the Chrysalis
"Chrysalises both inspire and baffle me. The thought that a caterpillar can crawl into a sac made of its own body and dissolve its form and come out as a butterfly is a cliched image of transformation, but holy crap. Stop for a moment and really think about that. Does the caterpillar know this is going to happen? If it does that shows some tremendous trust. If it doesn't, then that shows some incr... posted on Apr 9, 10524 reads

Resilient Threads: Weaving Joy and Meaning into Well-Being
Physician burnout, depression, and suicide are tearing at the fabric of our health care system, which Dr. Mukta Panda has witnessed firsthand, written about, and sought to address for years. She is a physician, speaker, and facilitator whose work seeks to transform the heart of patient care and medical education. In her latest book, Resilient Threads: Weaving Joy and Meaning into Well-Being, Dr. P... posted on May 18, 5529 reads

Life in the Time of Cholera: Lessons on a Pandemic
"As sirens fill the streets of London, George Prochnik recalls a revolutionary poets account of the 1832 cholera pandemic that unfolded in Paris. While watching history repeat itself in devastating refrain, George wonders: What is hysteria? What is necessary passion and courage? How can we respond both lucidly and compassionately?"... posted on Oct 23, 4403 reads

Click Here for Unconditional Love
On Sue Cochrane's website is a button that says "Click Here for Unconditional Love"- it leads to a selection of writings that offer exactly that. It isn't just the words of Sue's stories that touch the reader, but the wordless energy behind them. Sue Cochrane survived a traumatic childhood to become a pioneering family court judge. Throughout her career she strived to put the heart back into the b... posted on Feb 15, 0 reads

The Defiant Tenderness of Surrender
"There are so many courageous people just making breakfast in the morning, going to work, taking care of their families, trying to do online teaching. Holy God. I mean, I just wish there was a cosmic scorekeeper for all of the billions of people doing their everyday acts of courage. I suspect that what we're looking at in the sky at night aren't stars, they are evidence and markers of all those co... posted on Mar 15, 5436 reads

The World Needs Your Cargo: Kozo Hattori & Sue Cochrane
In July of 2020, beloved ServiceSpace friends Kozo Hattori, and Sue Cochrane, came together for a virtual conversation in the presence of community. Both were navigating stark realities with cancer. Their luminous exchange was threaded with laughter, insight, tender truths, poignant moments and profound life-wisdom. Kozo peacefully "changed address," on March 1st, 2021. His transition came just we... posted on Mar 2, 8566 reads

Making Children's Books Amid Loss
Even as artist and celebrated children's book author Nancy Carlson coped with her husband and best friend's devastating degenerative disease, and navigated bankruptcy, this resilient author continued to produce her captivating children's books. More about her story of courage and creativity here.... posted on Oct 26, 2520 reads

Solitude: The Seedbed of Self-Discovery
"In her Journal of a Solitude (public library), May Sarton records and reflects on her interior life in the course of one year, her sixtieth, with remarkable candor and courage. Out of these twelve private months arises the eternity of the human experience with its varied universal capacities for astonishment and sorrow, hollowing despair and creative vitality."... posted on Nov 4, 5035 reads

Finding the Courage for What's Redemptive
"How to embrace what's right and corrective, redemptive and restorative -- and an insistence that each of us is more than the worst thing weve done -- these are gifts Bryan Stevenson offers with his life. He's brought the language of mercy and redemption into American culture in recent years, growing out of his work as a lawyer with the Equal Justice Initiative based in Montgomery, Alabama. Now th... posted on Nov 20, 2812 reads

Listen: Four Love Songs
Kathleen Dean Moore is a writer, moral philosopher, and environmentalist. Her many books and awards include Holdfast: A Home in the Natural World, and Great Tide Rising: Towards Clarity and Moral Courage in a Time of Planetary Change, and, most recently, Earth's Wild Music: Celebrating and Defending the Songs of the Natural World. In the following essay, "she considers the looming loss of wild mus... posted on Nov 21, 3721 reads

Atlas of the Heart
"Researcher, academic and best-selling author Brene Brown has spent the last two decades studying courage, vulnerability, shame and empathy. Her TEDx talk, "the power of vulnerability", is one of the top five most viewed TED talks in the world with more than 50 million views.In her sixth and newest book, Atlas of the Heart, she takes us on a journey through 87 of the emotions and experiences that ... posted on Dec 26, 5982 reads

On Generosity
"Twice this week I was rendered speechless by the power of unexpected generosity. The first was an actual gift from someone I barely knew, and the second was a story of survival that took such courage to write that I experienced it as a gift. The gift was brought by one of my students, from her mother who I only met once. It was her mother's way of saying thank you to me for loving her daughter so... posted on Feb 2, 4093 reads

Writing a Better Story
"When I wrote the song Writing A Better Story I was in the process of doing some very deep inner work, which included stories of personal trauma but also legacy burdens that had been carried for generations and finally given to me. There are stories I carry and you carry that support us, sustain us, inspire us to be kinder better people and work for the better kinder world. There are stories we ... posted on Feb 17, 5012 reads

Resilience
This beautiful video was developed by a group of National Park Service staff and interns to explore the trauma, resilience, and beauty of the African American experience in our country. The story of black history in America may have been lost and forgotten at times, but this film uses beautiful photography and the words of Maya Angelou's poem "Still I Rise" to illustrate the beauty and courage of ... posted on Mar 5, 2786 reads

Revolutions and the Politics of Being
Anthony Siracusa studies the power of successful and enduring social movements from the grist of deep life experience. He has spent his life practicing -- and then studying and teaching -- how ordinary people find courage and the in-dwelling light that compels them to assert their power and humanity in the face of deprivation, dehumanization and injustice not principally as a form of protest, adv... posted on Mar 23, 2725 reads

Writing a Better Story
There comes a time when we choose what stories we tell ourselves personally or as a community. "So let us all honor the stories that gave us courage and personal grounding, the stories that brought us here, the finest ones the ancestors carried for us until we could carry them for ourselves. Let us acknowledge the stories that its time to finally release, to name the dragon so that the dragon can... posted on Apr 1, 2262 reads

Giving Your Heart Over to Real Change
"In this podcast, Sharon Salzberg joins Sounds Trues founder, Tami Simon, to discuss her recent book, Real Change: Mindfulness to Heal Ourselves and the World--and how you can begin to bring the core of your being into your work, your community, and your life. Sharon and Tami also discuss how contemplative practices can open the heart, agency and reclaiming your power to effect change, the empower... posted on Apr 8, 2723 reads

What Is Wanting to Find Expression Through You?
"I've learned the hard way, there's something in us that always knows what's right for us. And I can say quite literally, if I need to decide what is appropriate for me in any life situation, ranging from practical problems to large questions of life, I sort of put it inside and wait for an answer. And it always comes back to me I've imagined a bunch of little folks running around inside the solar... posted on Oct 1, 4449 reads

Davis Dimock: The Gift
"A guy came here once from some outsider art magazine. He was taking pictures and he asked, "Do you do anything else?" So, I showed him some of my drawings. He said, "These are great. We could use these." I told him I didn't want them out in the world. It seems pretentious to think of myself as an artist. I think of artists as people who are going through the angst of creating stuff, and then the ... posted on Dec 16, 1552 reads

New Year Transformation: Resources for the Journey
"The New year often brings with it a welcome sense of possibility as we bid farewell to the old and embrace the potential of what's to come. Even as global challenges continue to contribute to a sense of heightened uncertainty, opportunity awaits when we situate ourselves in gratefulness. May this collection of resources help to support you in welcoming the new year with wholehearted curiosity, hu... posted on Jan 1, 2538 reads