Let Them Be: Reclaiming Childhood for Our Children
"Play used to be the way we discovered ourselves and explored the world around us. Perhaps it was at a sandlot, where -- glove in hand --we argued with friends, drew lots, and fanned out to immerse ourselves in a pickup baseball game. Or maybe it was flashlight tag: we chased each other at dusk, laughing and tumbling, bumping and bumbling around. But we connected with each other: with parents, sib... posted on Mar 4, 20666 reads

In the Midst of Winter an Invincible Summer
"In spite of all of our care and precaution, life is unpredictable and subject to change. Our sense of security and control is mostly an illusion. No matter how hard we try to be safe and achieve and become someone in this world, life is uncertainty, and we are wavering creatures. There will be unexpected changes at the last moment. There will be loss." And, yet, in these times of loss, author Tra... posted on Feb 18, 20747 reads

Michael Penn: On Hopelessness and Hope
Michael Penn's life abounds with uncommon stories. The son of a Cherokee father and an African American mother, he spent part of his childhood living in a converted school bus on land gifted to the family by his great grandmother who had been a slave. That humble beginning launched him into a lifetime of unaccountable twists of fate, including a miraculous encounter with the woman who would become... posted on Sep 28, 3170 reads

The Emotional Life of Animals
Any animal lover knows how intelligent our four-footed friends are, and how many emotions they share with us--especially the positive ones. And now scientific research tells us they have sensory and motor abilities that dwarf ours. Dogs are able to detect diseases such as cancer and diabetes and warn humans of impending heart attacks and strokes. Elephants, whales, hippopotamuses, giraffes, and al... posted on Nov 26, 6653 reads

Grieving My Way Into Loving the Planet
"In this excerpt from the new anthology 'A Wild Love for the World: Joanna Macy and the Work of Our Times,' journalist Dahr Jamail describes how Macy and her work helped him survive profound war trauma and climate grief. Macy, a scholar and teacher of Buddhism, systems thinking, and deep ecology, is the author of 13 books and a respected voice in movements for peace, justice, and ecology. She orig... posted on May 22, 5360 reads

Expanding the Spirit of Democracy
"How might we unlock hope in an expansive spirit of democracy for present and future generations in this time of upheaval? As the underside of American society is being revealed and the stark inequities and racial prejudices made manifest, we are called to reflect on what brought us to this disturbing state of affairs. With shock and recrimination we are responding to the truth of our history and ... posted on Aug 22, 2936 reads

We Can Do This: A Conversation with Paul Hawken
"Paul Hawken is an environmentalist, entrepreneur, author and activist who has dedicated his life to environmental sustainability and changing the relationship between business and the environment. He is one of the environmental movements leading voices, and a pioneering architect of corporate reform with respect to ecological practices. His work includes founding successful, ecologically consciou... posted on Sep 13, 3703 reads

The Buy Nothing Project Gift Economies
Liesl Clark and her family traveled to Nepal on a "quest to find answers." They returned home with a new perspective on community and a better way of living. Clark saw how the Nepalese cared for each other, insisting on sharing gifts equally within the community and taking responsibility for the aging, fragile, and infirm without regard to family ties. She believed these principles could be applie... posted on Mar 26, 2446 reads

The Frightfully Wondrous Experience of Being Here
Ra Avis didn't call herself a writer till she was accused of the crime that would eventually result in 437 days of incarceration. In the four years between the accusation and the handcuffs, after a friendly push from her husband--a writer himself--she started a blog and named it Rarasaur (frightfully wondrous things happen here). It became a space for writing about love and grace and grief, and wo... posted on Jun 23, 4411 reads

The Power of Giving
"Fariba Safai and Ashley Smith were still students at CCA when they decided to do something radical. They decided to prepare a large batch of home made soup (from a favorite recipe of Faribas mother), to construct a cart able to wheel a very large stainless steel pot along a sidewalk, and to make their way to Union Square in San Francisco on Black Friday[the day after Thanksgiving and largest shop... posted on Dec 4, 1709 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, 2726 reads

How We Wrestle is Who We Are
"My son Liam was born ten years ago. He looked like a cucumber on steroids. He was fat and bald and round as a cucumber on steroids. He looked healthy as a horse. He wasn't. He was missing a chamber in his heart. You need four rooms in your heart for smooth conduct through this vale of fears and tears, and he only had three, so pretty soon doctors cut him open and iced down his heart and shut it d... posted on Jul 9, 2819 reads

Make Good Art
"I escaped from school as soon as I could, when the prospect of four more years of enforced learning before I'd become the writer I wanted to be was stifling. I got out into the world, I wrote, and I became a better writer the more I wrote, and I wrote some more, and nobody ever seemed to mind that I was making it up as I went along, they just read what I wrote and they paid for it, or they didn't... posted on May 21, 4619 reads

Poetry is an Egg with a Horse Inside
"Our concerns as adults and as children are not so different. We want to be surprised, transformed, challenged, delighted, understood. For me, since an early age, poetry has been a place for all these things. Poetry is a rangy, uncontainable genre--it is a place for silliness and sadness, delight and despair, invention and ideas (and also, apparently, alliteration). Giving children poems that addr... posted on Jun 24, 1332 reads

Amy Tan: Unintended Memoir
"Writer Amy Tans hit debut novel, The Joy Luck Club (1989), catapulted her to commercial and critical success, spending over 40 weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list. With the 1993 blockbuster film adaption that followed, which was selected for the National Film Registry in 2020, as well as additional bestselling novels, librettos, short stories and memoirs, Tan firmly established herself a... posted on Aug 9, 1353 reads

From the Ground Up: The Art of Place
"I survey this parcel of land that I have the honor of tending. It is the first place in my adult life where I feel rooted and held by the land, much like my childhood in the woods. This is the place where I learned about honorable stewardship. It is an awareness that now extends beyond my yard. This is the place where I learned to garden. I learned ways to heal the land and cultivate sustainable ... posted on Aug 19, 1625 reads

Becoming an Active Operator of Your Nervous System
"Deb Dana, LCSW, is a clinician and consultant specializing in using the lens of Polyvagal Theory to understand and resolve the impact of trauma and create ways of working that honor the role of the autonomic nervous system. In this podcast, Tami Simon converses with Deb Dana to offer listeners a practical understanding of Polyvagal Theory and how we can begin to decode the language of our body fo... posted on Nov 12, 5359 reads

‘If there’s nowhere else to go, this is where they come’
Nowadays, it doesn’t take much time in a local library to realize libraries are no longer hushed spaces with people reading books. They help with forms, tutoring, testing, and lessons from knitting to coding. Besides books, they lend footballs, walking sticks, winter coats, and a litany of other items and services. It is “somewhere where everybody can come,” even those who have n... posted on Jul 11, 1298 reads

Holiday Happiness for the Family
Will a pile of presents make our kids feel happy and loved this holiday season? Research shows that kids who focus on stuff and money are less happy and less healthy, more narcissistic, and have more behavior disorders than others. Clearly that joy doesn’t last. Though fraught with materialism, this season has more potential than any other to foster happiness. Spiritually and culturally meaningf... posted on Dec 23, 2051 reads

10,000 Girls Education Program
After the sudden deaths of her husband and 26-year-old daughter, Viola Vaughn was left with five grand-children to care for in Africa. Amid her grief, she found comfort in home-schooling them and her success won local attention. Within two weeks, Vaughn had 20 girls in her house who were failing school and asking her to teach them. In 2001, Vaughn turned her grandchildren's bedrooms into classroo... posted on Apr 13, 3261 reads

13 Ways to Help Heal the Land
Something within us loves the land. Sees gentle hills, undulating dunes, and tooth-like mountaintops bright-lit at dusk and responds with deep delight. And not just to the look of the land, but to the feel of it. How it is to sit on a stony beach or plunge hands into the warm soil of summer. Such practices are essential for our sanity, to tap us into wild currents of energy without which we would ... posted on May 18, 4569 reads

Connecting Art and Ecology
"There is an unmistakable link between art and ecology. Art is a process of discovering connections both within us and in the outside world. Ecology is the study of interactions among living beings and their environment. So both are really the study of relationships. One of the fundamental problems of our time is the scarcity of attention to how things are related. The modern marketplace, televisi... posted on Jan 27, 3865 reads

The Hardest Work You Will Ever Do
The day Mary Cook's fiance fell to his death, it started to snow. "It snowed almost every day for the next four months, while I sat on the couch and watched it pile up," she reflects. When friends and community members insisted on helping her, Cook finds herself struck with feelings of guilt, pride, and helplessness. "One morning, I shuffled downstairs and was startled to see a snowplow clearing m... posted on May 12, 5776 reads

To Affect the Quality of the Day
"Either way, there I am with recently-turned-eight year old Neha under the Coral Jasmine tree; I reach over and shake the trunk gently and she tilts her head up and watches the white sudden swirl of blossoms falling like stars, like snowflakes with an expression of perfectly mingled awe and delight (my day is Made in that moment). And then we both bend to the sweetly-scented task at hand. I find m... posted on Sep 28, 2914 reads

The Power and Benefit of Circles
One of the oldest, most widespread, and effective tools for creating personal and social change is the Circle. This organizational form is used for an array of purposes and appears under different names in a variety of contexts and cultures in countries around the world. In the United States, millions of people form self-organized literature circles, otherwise known as book clubs. In Japan, hundre... posted on Nov 12, 10993 reads

The Empathic Civilization
We humans are soft-wired for sociability and affection, wanting to belong and to empathize. The question is "Can we extend our empathy to the entire human race and biosphere?" Bringing in recent insights from fields like neuroscience to anthropology, author and social thinker Jeremy Rifkin's maps out a solution in a stunningly visual and cohesive way. In this ten-minute video, he defines the empat... posted on Mar 24, 4271 reads

James Doty on Magic, Compassion and the Brain
James Doty is no stranger to struggle. He served as a caregiver in a family whose mother was an invalid and father suffered from alcoholism. They were on public assistance all that time. As he said, "At that age you feel like a leaf being blown by an ill wind." ...At age 13 he wandered into a magic store and had a serendipitous conversation with the mother of the owner who was there. She took ... posted on Feb 22, 21374 reads

We Have Everything We Need Already
"My grandmother never went to school, she never knew how to read or write, and she was such a wise and brilliant woman. She was incredibly creative, could come up with songs and dances and games right on the spot. She had tons of practical knowledge on herbal remedies and healing practices, and she was the most environmentally conscious person I know. Nothing ever went to waste; she would always m... posted on May 8, 15039 reads

Know the Beauty of Place: Interview With An Eye-Opening Writer
What is a place? We don't have a word for it, really. A place is an intimate thing. It's so much more than just an area you can measure. Jane Wodening says, "When I see one, and I see its welcome, I like to go and sit in it awhile. A place might be very small or cover acres and acres. It's full of people -- I mean, critters and plants and water and air and dirt and light -- living their lives and ... posted on Jun 3, 16471 reads

How Nature Can Make You Kinder and Happier
""People have been discussing their profound experiences in nature for the last several 100 years -- from Thoreau to John Muir to many other writers," says researcher David Strayer, of the University of Utah. "Now we are seeing changes in the brain and changes in the body that suggest we are physically and mentally more healthy when we are interacting with nature." While he and other scientists ma... posted on Mar 20, 27464 reads

Smart By Nature: Schooling for Sustainability
"There is a bold new movement underway in school systems across North America and around the world. Educators, parents, and students are remaking K-12 education to prepare students for the environmental challenges of the coming decades. They are discovering that guidance for living abundantly on a finite planet lies, literally, under their feet and all around them -- in living soil, food webs and ... posted on May 21, 15506 reads

Why is the World So Beautiful?
Nobel physicist Frank Wilczek considers whether the deepest realities of the world embody beautiful ideas. He notes, "[[t]here's a very rich history of art objects and music and what people have found beautiful, and literature, and we can compare that to what scientists find in their deep investigation of what the world is, and see not whether those things coincide -- they clearly don't coincide. ... posted on Jul 25, 12048 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 5, 11846 reads

Why Play? This Is Serious
While play is fun, it also has serious benefits -- for everyone. "Play and games (with and without rules) enable us to learn about ourselves, who we want to be, and how we see ourselves in the world. Play has huge benefits for people of all ages, including how to solve problems, gain knowledge, learn to be in a group, and develop creativity and imagination." In this article, Sarah Huxley explores ... posted on Mar 28, 12060 reads

Liz Mitten Ryan: One With The Herd
In 1999 Liz Mitten Ryan, award-winning artist, mother of six and founder of a successful fine art publishing company in Vancouver, moved with her architect husband, and a herd of eleven horses, to Gateway 2 Ranch -- a 320-acre slice of paradise nestled in the grasslands of British Columbia. For over a decade now, Liz has facilitated "Equinisity Retreats" on this magnificent land. Coined by her hu... posted on Mar 9, 16746 reads

Awakening Compassion at Work
In their new book, 'Awakening Compassion at Work: The Quiet Power that Elevates People and Organizations,' Drs. Jane Dutton and Monica Worline discuss the theme of compassion, how employees and organizations can utilize it, and why it's valuable. It is important to recognize that western society often encourages a fear of compassion, particularly fear of being seen as weak or being taken advantage... posted on Jul 15, 11708 reads

Spotlight on Earth Day
Since its inception in 1970, Earth Day marks a global celebration of Earth and the concept of peace. It presents an opportunity to demonstrate support for environmental protection. From lush rain forests to arid deserts, thundering waterfalls to serene ponds, majestic glaciers to craggy mountains and teeming coral reefs, Earth is a complex, interconnected planet, filled with diversity and abundanc... posted on Apr 18, 11618 reads

Choosing Authentic Conversations
Despite being published almost 10 years ago, "Authentic Conversations: Moving from Manipulation to Truth and Commitment" by Jamie and Maren Showkeir is still relevant. It's message is a timely reminder that changing the culture requires changing our conversations. While they are addressing workplace conversations specifically, their strategies can be applied to any situation. An excerpt from the I... posted on Oct 22, 12169 reads

Ken Cloke: There Is No Them. There Is Just Us.
"If chickens are playing on a playground and they're fighting, the very first thing that we tend to do is separate them. Separation works to stop the fighting, but it doesn't work to settle the issues that they're fighting over. So there are relatively primitive and relatively advanced methods for handling any particular type of conflict. And those are endless -- throughout our lives, we have noth... posted on Nov 27, 14804 reads

Hummingbirds: Bubbles Wrapped in Feathers
Their appearance has been described as "glittering fragments of rainbows, flamingo comets, and living gems," but equally fascinating and beautiful is what hummingbirds are physically able to do and how they are able to do it. Their bodies, bones, and feathers are filled with air -- which makes them little more than "bubbles wrapped in feathers" -- yet an adult hummingbird visits an average of 1,50... posted on Feb 19, 1181 reads

The Soul in Depression
We're fluent in the languages of psychology and medication, but the word "depression" does not do justice to this human experience. Depression is also spiritual territory. It is a shadow side of human vitality and as such teaches us about vitality. And what if depression is possible for the same reason that love is possible? Dive into this interview from On Being and hear rare, brave, and helpful ... posted on Jun 19, 14661 reads

Rajni Bakshi: Stories of Modern Day Gandhians
Rajni Bakshi is a Mumbai-based freelance journalist and storyteller who writes about social and political movements in contemporary India. Two of her well-known books include 'Bapu Kuti: Journeys in Rediscovery of Gandhi', chronicling the work and lives of activists engaged in social transformation rooted in the philosophy of Gandhi, and 'Bazaars, Conversations and Freedom: for a market culture be... posted on Aug 23, 4830 reads

Change the Worldview, Change the World
At the heart of every culture is a story of how the world came to be and what that means for us. Look closer and you'll find many more narratives that comprise our collective consciousness. In the case of the Western world, problems like white supremacy, misogyny, and ecological hostility are all disconnected storylines that have been kept alive year after year. In this compelling essay, author Dr... posted on Sep 19, 11925 reads

How Green Is My Forest
"We are the people of this land. We are nature, human and non-human. These are our bodies. Together we are one body, we are creation, and always will be. We matter. Humus, seed, fruit, tooth, organ, blood and bone. We are root, water, mud, alga and stone. We are the snap of bladderwort. We are buttress-rooted trees. Orchid, fern, dragonfly, elephant, monkey; we are larva, worm, cocoon; creeper, li... posted on Oct 14, 4988 reads

What Does It Mean to Live Wisely and Well?
What does it mean to live wisely and well and what does it take? How can we cultivate qualities such as love, wisdom, kindness, and compassion? Dr. Roger Walsh's lifework, addresses these questions. A man with an eclectic past, Roger has explored contemplative life as a professor, physician, therapist, celebrated author, spouse, spiritual practitioner, and inquisitive human being. He is a for... posted on Jan 17, 6340 reads

In An Unspoken Voice: The Changing Face of Trauma
Peter Levine therapist, best selling author and educator has spent over 40 years understanding and developing treatments for trauma. He is the developer of the Somatic Experiencing technique. He shares from his book "In an Unspoken Voice", how our perspectives on trauma and extreme stress have shifted from acceptance as a part of our biology, a part of every life, to something separate and minimiz... posted on Feb 20, 10407 reads

Trailhead
In their award-winning short film Trailhead, documentary filmmakers Emily Fraser and Henry Weiner offer an exploration of the history and heart behind the creation of hundreds of miles of interconnected wildland trails minutes from downtown Oakland, California. Profiling the volunteer network of hikers, bikers, dog walkers, historians and educators who donate their time to help maintain this cheri... posted on May 15, 2143 reads

Gazing Into The Heart of Perfection
"Getting people to receive...to see the gifts they've been given...life itself! Life along the roadside, with the flowers and the weeds, and the pebbles and the trees, and the sounds of birds! And looking up and seeing the clouds, the light and the shadows. We're surrounded! Were in it! And did you know that the Persian word for paradise means "an enclosed garden?" We're in paradise, and we don't... posted on Dec 14, 9891 reads

My Vision Quest
"I must begin by asking myself, 'What do I want?' What do I want, really -- not because of my background and education, self-image and vanity, but what does this 'I' that I am actually want from this short life? Indeed. What, or who am I? And what for? That stops me. And I begin, in silence, to listen - to look up to what I can see and know about the great Universe..."Jim George was a celebrated C... posted on Feb 16, 3586 reads

Left Behind: Surviving Suicide Loss
In the spring of 2017, Nandini Murali, a South Indian journalist and author, returned from an out-of-town assignment to an eerily quiet home. Typically, her husband would greet her at the front door, but that morning he hadn't answered her phone calls. It was Nandini who discovered his body, and confronted an unfathomable reality. T.R. Murali, one of the most prominent urologists in India, and her... posted on Apr 13, 6931 reads