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Mark Nepo On Being The Poem![](images/quickread.gif) "Every person has some gift and some trouble, and some mature deep awakened part of soul, and some other part that is blind. This is how we kind of pollinate each other in the human spring. We all need each other." Here, Tami Simon speaks with poet and philosopher Mark Nepo about relating to pain, sincerity as intelligence, the role of pilgrimage in our lives, and the spiritual path of the artist.... posted on Jul 12, 23524 reads
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The Laundromat with a Big Heart![](images/quickread.gif) The Indian Express laundry shop resembles an average laundromat in the bustling metropolis of Mumbai, India. The piles of neatly folded clothes and smiling faces of the shop's workers reflect their expert and efficient service in cleaning people's garments since 1940. A closer look, though, reveals a softer, warmer side to the shop: cats. Big and small, these furry creatures are often rescued from... posted on Jun 9, 15649 reads
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4 Ways To Be More Present In Travel![](images/quickread.gif) "Being present is about slowing things down enough to truly feel, experience, and sense them -- to grasp them in full." During moments of movement it is all too easy for our attention to shift from the past to the future. But in the present moment, we can foster meaningful connections to people and places. How, then, can we be more present in our travel and share our travel stories with greater r... posted on May 7, 16395 reads
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Trying Not To Try: Cultivating the Art of Spontaneity![](images/quickread.gif) "The best way to get approval is not to need it" Hugh MacLeod memorably counseled. We now know that perfectionism kills creativity and excessive goal-setting limits our success rather than begetting it -- all different manifestations of the same deeper paradox of the human condition, at once disconcerting and comforting, which Edward Slingerland, professor of Asian Studies and Embodied Cognition a... posted on Jun 3, 14100 reads
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The Age of Outrospection![](images/quickread.gif) In the age of outrospection, the journey lies in taking a whole-hearted leap into the shoes of another. Outrospection, defined by Maptia as understanding "life through the eyes of others, fostering an adventurous curiosity for other lives and places beyond our own experience." Widening our circle of compassion from loved ones to embrace all beings with care and goodwill not only has intrinsic valu... posted on Jul 21, 22909 reads
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Cartographies of Time![](images/quickread.gif) Industrialization, and now globalisation, continues to promote the importance of strict clock-based routines. Think about it, how would we be able to interact on an international basis without a shared understanding and agreement on how we measure time? And yet all over the world there are fascinating, often enchanting stories from cultures that still measure time in more traditional ways, and in ... posted on Jun 23, 14552 reads
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Joyce Carol Oates On the Art of Beholding Beauty![](images/quickread.gif) Perhaps counterintuitively, the diaries of celebrated artists, writers, and scientists, private as they are, are often reminders not only of their humanity but of our own, brimming with deeply and widely resonant insights on our shared struggles and yearnings. Such is the case of The Journal of Joyce Carol Oates -- a chronicle of Oates's characteristically self-reflexive, sometimes self-conscious,... posted on Jun 19, 9963 reads
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Slomo: The Neurologist Turned Slow Motion Skater![](images/quickread.gif) Dr. John Kitchin was a successful neurologist who, on the surface seemed to have it all. But underneath the trappings of his material success he was ill-at-ease and unhappy. There was a haunting emptiness inside. After a serendipitous interaction with an elderly man in a cafeteria line, Kitchin decided to trade in his career and luxurious lifestyle (that included a Ferrari, an exotic animal farm a... posted on Jul 14, 6182 reads
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Jim Hunter on Servant Leadership![](images/quickread.gif) Jim Hunter has been training servant leaders for over 30 years and is the author of two internationally best-selling books on the topic. Servant leadership brings love to leadership, and Hunter defines it as "the business of identifying and meeting people's legitimate needs, seeking their greatest good so they can grow." In this interview, Hunter discusses how to create real change through servant... posted on Aug 7, 30425 reads
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Empty Hands, Full Heart: Music for the Soul![](images/quickread.gif) At the pinnacle of a dizzying career, young Indian-American rapper Nimesh "Nimo" Patel was haunted by an unshakeable sense of emptiness. In his mid-twenties, he abandoned the limelight. An inner voice nudged him to radically simplify his life and find his purpose in service to others. Moving to the Gandhi Ashram in India, he dedicated himself to the children in surrounding slums. After a 7-year mu... posted on Jun 16, 48791 reads
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6 Principles For Changing The World -- Seriously.![](images/quickread.gif) "The solution revolution -- the convergence of money and meaning, problem solvers and 'patient' capital, governments and citizen (and commercial) changemakers -- is underway. But while it flourishes in some parts of the world, other regions are still sitting on the sidelines." Want to know what you can do to accelerate the solution economy? Read on for six world changing strategies from William D.... posted on Oct 16, 18731 reads
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What 'Home' Means To The Homeless![](images/quickread.gif) Willie Baronet took a 30-day cross-country road trip from Seattle to New York, buying homeless signs and exploring the meaning of "home." What began as a way to deal with the discomfort he felt when seeing the homeless has now morphed into an art campaign called "We Are All Homeless" which seeks to create a more conscious and compassionate society. Willie shares: "These signs -- and this practice ... posted on Aug 25, 31869 reads
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The Amazing Story of Lilica: A Dog Who Lets No Animal Go Hungry![](images/quickread.gif) Imagine that you are feeding a hungry dog and instead of eating all of the food you brought for her at once, she picks up the bag and brings it home. Every night, she eats only part and take the rest with her. One day, you follow her home--four miles away-- and discover that she is bringing the bag of food you prepare her to share with the other hungry animals in her extended hungry family, inclu... posted on Sep 22, 63300 reads
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Creative Compulsive Disorder: Remembering Zina Nicole Lahr![](images/quickread.gif) With goggles resting on her head and peacock feathers folded into hair, Zina Lahr viewed herself as a canvas. Self-diagnosed with "creative compulsive disorder", Zina filmed a video to share her passion for mechanics and animatronics. She reveals some of her jaw-dropping artwork: a giant puppet spider she helped create for a movie, and a wired paper crane for stop-motion animation. Zina's artwork ... posted on Sep 12, 4965 reads
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7 Ways To Exercise Your Brain & Why You Should![](images/quickread.gif) Researchers believe that your brain performance peaks in your 50's and then begins decreasing. The good news is that the brain is highly adaptable. Repetitive brain exercises practiced both early and later in life keeps the brain strong and helps it combat the reduced memory, thinking speed, problem solving, and reasoning that can set in later in life. Read on to learn about seven easy, scientific... posted on Oct 20, 165846 reads
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Eight Keys To End Bullying![](images/quickread.gif) "I am hopeful. I believe we have an opportunity to change the culture of bullying among young people and I think the answer begins with those who live and work with young people every day. It is not complicated policies or grandiose programs that make the most difference, but rather consistent, daily, nurturing acts of reaching out to both children who bully and those who are are the receiving end... posted on Oct 25, 22182 reads
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From Silos To Solution EcoSystem![](images/quickread.gif) Through the ongoing progression of the internet and social media, the conventional and long-established way of doing business is starting to see a huge shift in how things are getting done. In William Eggers and Paul Macmillan's book, 'The Solution Revolution,' they describe a new dynamic in which various groups can move toward their goal much more productively than if each group pursued it separa... posted on Oct 27, 11715 reads
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New Guinea's Birds of Paradise![](images/quickread.gif) Deep in the isolated wilderness of New Guinea lives extraordinary beauty as you have never seen it before. It pours from within the existence of 39 species of birds found nowhere else on earth. For over a decade, Ed Scholes, a Cornell Lab scientist, and Tim Laman, a National Geographic photojournalist, took on the Birds-of-Paradise project -- an incredible journey to capture the majestic splendor ... posted on Sep 30, 4067 reads
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The Giving Keys![](images/quickread.gif) When singer-songwriter and actress Caitlin Crosby got on stage with her hotel key conveniently draped on a makeshift chain around her neck, she had no idea that this would eventually open a door and lead to "The Giving Keys". This organization unlocks human potential through a circle of passed-on keys inscribed with inspiring words like "courage", "trust", and "love". Both givers and recipients o... posted on Nov 30, 19522 reads
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Why a Culture of Compassion Matters![](images/quickread.gif) "What is companionate love?" To Sigal Barsade, a Wharton School management professor, it is when workers "who are together day in and day out, ask and care about each other's work and even non-work issues...They are careful of each other's feelings. They show compassion when things don't go well." Not surprisingly, Barsade and a colleague found that this important aspect of one's workplace ultimat... posted on Dec 2, 22434 reads
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The Splendid Practice of Silence![](images/quickread.gif) In this beautifully grounding piece, a former monk shares insights from a year of silence and contemplation. "Deep within each of us is a great well of health, abundance, knowledge, guidance. When we enter the silence and stay in the silence, we come into direct contact with that sacred well. In that place dwells our True and Higher Self: It is that part of us that exists and operates in a place w... posted on Nov 18, 38186 reads
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An Incredible Story of a Young Woman's Courage![](images/quickread.gif) Malvika Iyer is the essence of courage and optimism. At 13, a freak accident caused her to lose both her hands and severely damaged her legs, raising serious doubts about whether she would ever walk again. But young Malvika braved the odds and emerged victorious. Today she is a dedicated social worker, a motivational speaker, a model for accessible clothing in India, and part of the "Global Shaker... posted on Dec 18, 26379 reads
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Finding Those Three Magical Words![](images/quickread.gif) How easy is it to "love your neighbor" when your intoxicated neighbor wakes you up in the middle of the night and insults you? For people dedicated to the path of nonviolence, like Arun Dada and his wife Mira Ba, it's not only the right thing to do, it's the only thing you can do. Instead of getting angry, they chose to try and transform the relationship through compassion. And in doing so they i... posted on Nov 27, 36650 reads
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Pilot Inspires Compton Kids To Fly![](images/quickread.gif) Robyn Petgrave is teaching kids to reach for the sky -- literally. Troubled by the large percentage of Compton children falling victim to gang violence and drugs, Robyn created Tomorrow's Aeronautical Museum. The aeronautical program, designed for youth to learn flying, inspires its participants, and teaches responsibility. To participate, kids must maintain a good grade point average, stay out of... posted on May 31, 1732 reads
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Riders For Health: Motorcycles That Save Lives![](images/quickread.gif) Solving community problems requires more than newer and better technology for the poor. It requires something more radical than that--that we rehumanize the poor. People require not only new technologies to solve some of the biggest challenges in rural health and development, they require basic technologies--like transportation for the cadres of health care workers and others. Riders for Health re... posted on Nov 19, 10673 reads
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Firsts Are The Antidote To Stuck![](images/quickread.gif) Sometimes in life we find ourselves stuck. We live our lives by to-do lists or get caught up in making the 'right' decision and neglect our other interests and passions that help to define who we are. To rediscover happiness and our sense of self, we must be open and willing to change and to take the first step towards getting 'unstuck.' Read further for an inspirational story of one woman's journ... posted on Jan 20, 26871 reads
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Poems To Color In: Beloved Poems Turned Interactive Art![](images/quickread.gif) Gifted artist and filmmaker Ellie Cross shares her story of an unusual "Stone Soup" gathering in Mumbai that she attended, and of the inspiration that led her to create charming, illustrated versions of poems by Rilke, Rumi, Mary Oliver and others. Titled "Poems To Color In", Ellie's series invites readers to print out and shade in the depicted verses. Her work gives people an opportunity to add ... posted on Dec 16, 104047 reads
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The Beauty Of Craft![](images/quickread.gif) The world is filled with a vast array of wonderful art forms - from basket weaving, pottery and dance, to calligraphy, decorative ironwork and artisan bread-making, there are innumerable ways in which people across the ages have brought head, heart and hands together in service of creativity. Enjoy this glimpse into the studios of artists and craftspeople in and around the San Francisco Bay area i... posted on Feb 20, 15704 reads
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The Art of Noticing ... and Creating![](images/quickread.gif) In this interview author, entrepreneur and internet thought leader Seth Godin discusses what he believes has become the "Connection Economy". Godin's belief is that there is a way to go about getting good at noticing things, and then being able to turn around and help others make that connection. And no matter on how small a scale, it is then that he thinks 'art' happens.... posted on Jan 26, 8352 reads
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The Endangered Sounds of Silence![](images/quickread.gif) "Silence is a sound, many, many sounds. I've heard more than I can count. Silence is the moonlit song of the coyote signing the air, and the answer of its mate. It is the falling whisper of snow that will later melt with an astonishing reggae rhythm so crisp that you will want to dance to it. It is the sound of pollinating winged insects vibrating soft tunes as they defensively dart in and out of ... posted on Feb 16, 21993 reads
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The Dinner Party: Breaking Bread, Healing Hearts![](images/quickread.gif) When Lennon Flowers' mom passed away from lung cancer during her senior year in college, Lennon kept herself busy to avoid dealing with the pain which eventually hit her a year later, making her feel shameful and alone. A turning point came when Lennon met Carla Fernandez who had just lost her father. The friends decided to organize a dinner party for five women who had lost a parent at a young ... posted on Feb 9, 11855 reads
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Lily Yeh: Healing Our Broken Places Through Art![](images/quickread.gif) Art teacher Lily Yeh started an initiative that transformed an abandoned lot in inner-city north Philadelphia into an art park. It blossomed into the Village of Arts and Humanities, which has built more art parks and gardens, renovated abandoned homes, and created educational programs, art workshops, after-school programs, a youth theater, and joyful community celebrations. Now Lily's new organiza... posted on Feb 22, 25646 reads
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Can Kids Teach Themselves?![](images/quickread.gif) "It's crazy that in a system that is meant to teach and help the youth, there is no voice for the youth at all." A highschool in Massachusets is trying a radical experiment by letting students design and lead their own learning for a semester. During the "Independence Project," students are left alone for most of the day to pursue their chosen work, meeting with teachers only once a day for guidan... posted on Apr 4, 6317 reads
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Creating Welcoming Space![](images/quickread.gif) Marilyn Lacey, founder and executive director of Mercy Beyond Borders, invites us to consider the power of creating welcoming space for others, even those we consider strangers or enemies. Marilyn explains that hospitality "entails creating not just physical room but emotional spaciousness where the stranger can enter and be himself or herself, where the stranger can become ally instead of threat,... posted on Mar 5, 16283 reads
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How To Retrain Your Brain With Three Words![](images/quickread.gif) Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, authors of the best-selling book 'Freakonomics,' are back again in an effort to help retrain your brain when it comes to solving problems. From small issues to major crises, in fields ranging from business and philanthropy, to sports and politics, Levitt and Dubner offer up a self-help manual for how to think more productively, more creatively, and more rati... posted on Mar 25, 67252 reads
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My House Is Your House![](images/quickread.gif) The way attorney and UCLA lecturer Tony Tolbert figures it: you don't have to have money to be generous. Tony became inspired by Kevin and Hannah Salwen, who sold their 6,500 square foot home, and donated $800,000 to charity. He decided to loan his home to Felicia Dukes, a single parent of four, for a full year. After giving birth to her fourth child, Felicia fell behind on payments, and became ho... posted on Mar 11, 4324 reads
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Four Years of Compassion College![](images/quickread.gif) In this moving and thought-provoking talk, ServiceSpace founder Nipun Mehta considers what four years of Compassion College might look like. Through powerful stories of real-life people from South Africa, to India, and from Silicon Valley to Taiwan he illustrates our potential to cultivate generosity in every moment, no matter what our circumstances. He vividly draws comparisons between the four s... posted on Apr 6, 3980 reads
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Black Madonna: A Song of Forgiveness![](images/quickread.gif) "In 1981, two white supremacists brutally murdered an eighteen-year-old black boy in Mobile, Alabama. During the trial, there was an astounding moment: one of the men expressed true sorrow for what he had done. Everyone took a breath. And the boy's mother, Beulah Mae Donald, forgave him." The ability of human beings to love, even those who have deeply wronged us, is a recurring source of amazement... posted on Mar 26, 18643 reads
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Rev. Violet Little's Welcome Church![](images/quickread.gif) It all began on a cold day in 2006, when the Reverend Violet Little walked into a public restroom in Philadelphia. Inside, she found a woman washing her hair in the sink; and another, using the hand dryer to warm her clothes. They were the city's homeless; the silent voices in the night. It was within this moment that the Welcome Church was born -- a 'church without walls', and one that would soon... posted on May 6, 15657 reads
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The Role of Empathy in Entrepreneurship![](images/quickread.gif) "What does empathy look like in action, and how can you incorporate [it] into your business model?" Ashoka, a non-profit organization that looks to entrepreneurial talent and new ideas to solve complex social problems, posed this very radical question. In response, three social enterprises from around the world shared their stories on how they build empathy and compassion. Their methods range fr... posted on May 26, 17835 reads
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Wendell Berry: To Save the Future, Live in the Present![](images/quickread.gif) "If we take no thought for the morrow, how will we be prepared for the morrow? A steady stream of poisons is flowing from our croplands into the air and water. The land itself continues to flow or blow away, and in some places erosion is getting worse, and “no-till†technology does not prevent erosion on continuously cropped grainfields." Learn more about how poet and naturalist Wendel... posted on May 5, 11041 reads
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Is Your Web Browser a Credit Card for Your Time?![](images/quickread.gif) Studies have shown that credit cards and other forms of non-tangible currency make it easier for people to spend more than they otherwise might (and in many ways, this is precisely what they are designed to do). The internet has developed a similar model, pushing us to spend more time than we have on advertisements and other distractions. In a day and age when time is more precious than ever, how ... posted on May 16, 4587 reads
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Teach Aids: Breaking Taboos for the World for Free![](images/quickread.gif) Piya Sorcar is ​the founder and CEO of TeachAIDS, a social venture spun out of Stanford University that has been recognized as an innovation that could “change the world†by MIT Technology Review. At TeachAIDS, Piya leads a team of world experts in medicine, public health, and education to develop interactive software for HIV/AIDS prevention around the world. All of the material... posted on Jun 15, 8311 reads
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How Our Bodies React To Seeing Goodness![](images/quickread.gif) "Researchers have a name for that high we get from witnessing human goodness: "moral elevation." And it has been shown to have many positive benefits. Past studies have found that moral elevation inspires optimism, and makes one want to be a better person and to act altruistically toward others." In this article, Jill Suttie,summarizes a new study which sheds some light on what happens in the bod... posted on Jun 11, 15682 reads
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The Power of Landspeak![](images/quickread.gif) Under pressure, Oxford University Press revealed a list of the entries it no longer felt relevant to a modern-day childhood, including acorn, bluebell, buttercup, dandelion, ivy, lark, and mistletoe. The outdoor and the natural are displaced by the indoor and the virtual -- a small but significant symptom of the simulated life we increasingly live. And what is lost is the power that certain terms ... posted on Jul 2, 7887 reads
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The Top 10 Happiest Countries![](images/quickread.gif) "Everyone wants to be happy, and increasingly, countries around the world are looking at happiness as an indicator of national well-being and considering happiness in policy making. As this year's World Happiness Report states, "Happiness is increasingly considered a proper measure of social progress and a goal of public policy." But what makes people happy, and which countries have the highest le... posted on Jul 8, 71333 reads
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Saying Farewell To A Family Pet![](images/quickread.gif) There are many in life who walk beside us. Be they human or animal, we are touched by those beings who accompany us through the unfolding mystery of space and time. And even knowing that the spiral of life moves ever onward, from birth to death and round again, how, when the time comes, do we say goodbye to those we love? Shannon Hayes shares the story of Spriggan, and of holding sadness, joy, and... posted on Jul 23, 20745 reads
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Can People Change?![](images/quickread.gif) "One day, after a talk I had given on altruism, a person in the audience got up and said in an irritated tone: "What are you hoping for by encouraging us to cultivate altruism? Look at the history of humanity! It's always the same thing! An uninterrupted succession of wars and suffering. That's human nature, you can't change anything about that!" But is this truly the case?...Can the individual ch... posted on Sep 9, 15959 reads
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Sixth Graders on Mindfulness![](images/quickread.gif) "It really calms me down 'cause I get really stressed about homework a lot and when I breathe and just take a moment it really helps me focus more and I can get a lot more done" says one student. "If you get angry, you can just breathe in and out a couple of times..." says another. Listen to the children of Meena Srinivasan's 6th grade class at Park Day School in Oakland, California, talk about w... posted on Sep 2, 4658 reads
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The Science of Stress![](images/quickread.gif) Maria Popova explores her own experience of stress and PTSD, pointing out that long before scientists began shedding light on how our minds and bodies actually affect one another, an intuitive understanding of this dialogue between the body and the emotions, or feelings permeated our very language. Ancient Greek, Roman, and Indian Ayurvedic physicians all enlisted the theory of the four humors -- ... posted on Sep 28, 17740 reads
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