Zen and the Art of Law Enforcement
If it had been a different day, just a few weeks earlier, Captain Cheri Maples would have arrested the man without a second thought. He'd already threatened her and was refusing to hand his daughter over to his ex-wife after a weekend visitation. But on this day, shortly after returning home from a meditation retreat, the Wisconsin policewoman tried another tack. "This guy was huge, a lot bigger... posted on Nov 8, 2101 reads

An Upside to the Economic Downturn
With the global finance system imploding, maybe this time of creative destruction offers us the chance for a fresh start. What sort of society do we want to rebuild? What will expand our life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness without diminishing the chances for other people, now and in the future, to have the same? Maybe we'll learn to share the work and reclaim time for the aspects of our lives ... posted on Jan 1, 5218 reads

Kitchen Teachings: An Interview with Cherri Farrell
Cherri Farrell teaches Consumer and Family Science, a subject that used to be called Home Economics. Talking with Farrell, it's as if a window opens into the hidden worlds that exist in between the requirements of standard curricula, and to how important these hidden realms really are. These insights come out in her stories, "One time I had a child from Afghanistan whose parents were killed. He ca... posted on Jan 20, 2010 reads

Leadership Lessons from Everyday Life
"Leadership is a capability that each of us has within us. It is formed as we take on the opportunities and challenges of everyday life, and it is measured by our successes and failures. It is my belief and experience that the leadership lessons we learn in our everyday lives can and should be carried with us into our work environments, and that they can help us become better leaders of our people... posted on May 12, 9550 reads

A Roaming Refuge for 1200 Animals
Raymund Wee, a former flight stewart and pet groomer, sold his Singapore-based business and used the proceeds to establish Noah's Ark CARES. What began as a place of refuge for a couple hundred animals grew by leaps and bounds after a severe flood a few years back, and soon the haven was so full of three legged, one-eyed, emotionally wounded dogs and cats that he was forced to move the entire ark ... posted on Oct 11, 14668 reads

The Dash Between The Years
"While busy with work and deadlines and feeling somewhat under pressure, I was sent an advertisement for some inspirational books, one of which included the poem below. When I first glanced at the title, I assumed it was a poem about the race and rush of life, but as I read on it stopped me dead in my tracks and brought tears to my eyes. I had just snapped at a family member and didn't take notice... posted on Mar 26, 11525 reads

Boss Lady's Kindness Escapades
"The owner began mumbling in Korean under her breath. I couldn't get her to look up to me, so I asked the woman at my feet what was going on. She took an extra beat, maybe deciding whether she was going to really tell me, or not. And she said to me, 'That's Boss Lady, and it's Christmas Eve, and everyone going home early until you come in - Manicure Pedicure 45 minutes - so now everyone has to wai... posted on Apr 20, 6080 reads

Humor As Spiritual Practice
"I was going through airport security the other month, participating in the grind of pulling out my laptop and my Ziploc baggie full of plastic bottles, and removing my belt and my shoes and my watch and my jacket and trying to fit them all into the plastic bin in such a way that nothing would fall out as it went through its screening. On the other side, I quickly gathered my belongings so they ... posted on Jun 14, 24264 reads

Transformation By Design: Your Visa Card & Evolution's Plan
Like the familiar phrases yin and yang, work and play, peanut butter and jelly, the term chaordic brings seeming opposites together in harmony. According to Dee Hock, the founder and former CEO of Visa International, the company owes its success to its cha-ordic structure. "Hock coined the term chaordic to describe that perfect balance of chaos and order where evolution is most at home. Yes, that'... posted on May 30, 34881 reads

What School Doesn't Teach You: How To Learn
At school, work, and at home, we are continuously learning. But how do we learn, and are we going about this essential life skill effectively? Educational psychologists are beginning to examine these questions, and the answers that have come up so far may be surprising. It turns out that learning in ways that are engaging and that involve critical thinking are more effective overall compared to te... posted on Dec 10, 21641 reads

Eckhart Tolle: The Easier Path
To the uninitiated, his persona -- a soft German-accented voice, his boyish visage, his love of vests -- doesn't exactly scream 'guru!' Yet Tolle is one of the world's most popular spiritual teachers and a literary powerhouse whose best-selling books 'The Power of Now' and 'A New Earth' have influenced millions. Born in Germany, educated at the universities of London and Cambridge, Tolle writes ... posted on Jun 23, 84287 reads

The Illusion of Control
"Control is one of humankind's greatest illusions. Let's face it -- even with all the information available and expansive educational preparation -- unexpected events often interfere with our plans and our best efforts to control an outcome or an event (and even ourselves!). And what happens to us, to those around us, and to the teams and organizations we lead when things get disrupted?" Find out ... posted on Aug 9, 34910 reads

Seth Godin: On the Art of Noticing & Creating
Seth Godin is an internet thought leader, entrepreneur and founder of several internet companies. In this candid interview, he discusses the advantages of failure and how the internet revolution has flipped the art of business on its head: "You will never have better ratings than the Jersey Shore. That's not what the point is. It's not why we do our work. What works is does it matter? And is it po... posted on Sep 27, 29369 reads

How Social Connections Keep Seniors Healthy
Some of the greatest transitions in life occur in older age, including retiring, downsizing, or losing social ties. All of these changes have profound effects on physical and mental health. While physical activity and healthy eating are well known to help us go through these transitions with grace and in good health, social connections are also vital for maximizing sharing, friendship, health, and... posted on May 8, 19065 reads

How One Woman's Love Is Transforming Delhi's Brothels
G.B. Road houses a total of 77 brothels. Home to 4,000 women, and 1,500 children, it is the largest red light district in Delhi, India. An area no woman would go voluntarily. Or so you'd think. But a few years ago, Gitanjali Babbar walked right in. She quite literally knocked on the brothel doors, walked up the narrow staircases, and talked to the people there -- sipped tea with the brothel owners... posted on Dec 12, 42292 reads

Living Reverence: There is a Spark in Everything
In a world that has been relentlessly primed to favor the myths of independence and certainty over the truths of interconnection and mystery, the practice of reverence can seem foolish and unfashionable. But no one exists independent of all others. And the vast complex of our knowledge, though impressive, is erected on the shores of an ocean of unknowns. Reverence is a glad acknowledgement of thes... posted on Apr 23, 18058 reads

What Mindfulness is Missing
Dr. Jim Doty grew up in poverty and with an alcoholic father and depressed mother. But when he was 12 years old, a chance encounter with a woman named Ruth, and her teachings on mindfulness, visualization, and compassion, changed his life. He is now a clinical professor of neurosurgery at Stanford University and founder and director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education.... posted on Jul 5, 57188 reads

The Lady in Number Six
Alice Herz-Sommer was known for her grace and wisdom. The 109-year-old, [who passed away in 2014] was the oldest living pianist and Holocaust survivor, and undoubtedly one of the most inspirational people in the world. "Despite everything she's been through, Herz-Sommer insists that she's never hated the Nazis and never will. "I have lived through many wars and have lost everything many times -- i... posted on Jun 16, 20520 reads

A Tribute to Pakistan's Angel of Mercy
Amidst the violence and chaos of Karachi, there is a ray of hope: Pakistani philanthropist, humanitarian and a man of grit and strength, Abdul Sattar Edhi. Born in 1928 in Bantawa, Gujarat, India, he later migrated to Pakistan in 1947. From a very young age his mother taught him to be kind towards others. Each day, she would give him two paisa - one to spend on himself, and one on someone less fo... posted on Jul 20, 3154 reads

Lessons from the Garden: Harvest & Gratitude
"It's harvest time. Plums are falling from the trees every day. Tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini and beans need daily picking along with the plums, or they become too ripe too quickly. Im making sauces, soups and stews to freeze, and blanching chard and the last broccoli. Sometimes it feels overwhelming. A friend phoned a couple of days ago and invited me out to Alberta for a few days. Sounds wonderf... posted on Oct 12, 12248 reads

To Heal the Human Heart
The science of empathy is now one of the most celebrated subjects of psychological and neuro-psychological enquiry and it has the potential to transform human society in spectacular ways. For instance, if a human being's central nervous system carries blueprints for empathy, and if the health and vitality of one's empathy circuits depend on one's environment from conception through adulthood, what... posted on Feb 8, 0 reads

Why Be Kind?
In the wake of the US election, filmmakers Jessie Auritt and Alexandra Berger wanted to do something to try and combat the negativity, xenophobia, racism and sexism that surfaced. So they turned their camera on a demographic that hadn't been quite so jaded by the media and current events in the hopes that we might all learn from them and try to be kind and accepting toward other people, despite ou... posted on Feb 12, 7665 reads

On Walls, Cultural Resistance and the Artistry of Lily Yeh
Founded 15 years ago by Lily Yeh, Barefoot Artists is an organization that "travels to impoverished or traumatized communities and brings art as a means of healing and transformation. Part visual art, part community building, bonding, and mobilizing, it is a process [Yeh] describes as a living social sculpture. Yeh passionately believes in the power of communities to embrace their suffering and tr... posted on Mar 7, 2669 reads

What a Greater Good School Looks Like
One school in India is helping to counter the impact of intense academic pressure, high parental expectations, and extreme social and economic barriers students often face, by implementing outlets for gratitude, mindfulness, self-compassion, and more. Seth M. R. Jaipuria School, led by Anjali Jaipuria features a Garden of Kindness, Let It Go Pond, Gratitude Tree, and other spaces in which pre-k th... posted on Apr 9, 16802 reads

Food Not Bombs: A Conversation with Keith McHenry
Keith McHenry, co-founder of Food Not Bombs, has a vision: food not bombs changes people, service brings people together, and abundant thinking turns hearts to peace. For the last 35 years, he has worked with others to salvage surplus food, prepare it, and serve it for free in parks, at protests, and during disaster relief efforts. At these meals, volunteers distribute literature, share stories an... posted on Jul 7, 8625 reads

The Grace of Great Things
What if the goal of education becomes making visible and lifting up the souls of all those involved in the process? How might this way of reclaiming and re-grounding the learning-teaching relationship transform both the individual souls involved and the institutional souls of the systems themselves? Parker Palmer reflects on these and other profound questions with respect and grace in an article a... posted on Aug 25, 15782 reads

Driving Lessons
In this beguiling essay, writer Snigdha Manickavel brings to life the experience of taking driving lessons in small town South India. "I'm learning to drive. I am grasping terror in my hands and tossing it aside. I wake up early in the morning, earlier than I have for years. It is cool and grey outside and my room is filled with dark shapes and hungry mosquitoes. I wear my sister's abandoned cloth... posted on Feb 2, 6100 reads

The Science of Stress: Memories, Your Immune System and More
Many people have studied the effects that stress can have on the body, "but no researcher has done more to illuminate the invisible threads that weave mind and body together than Dr. Esther Sternberg. Her groundbreaking work on the link between the central nervous system and the immune system, exploring how immune molecules made in the blood can trigger brain function that profoundly affects our e... posted on Oct 8, 30293 reads

Money and My Relationship With It
In this intimate conversation, individuals who have spent much of their lives exploring the depths of our relationship with money share their perspectives, vulnerable moments, and truths around the topic. Jacob Needleman is a philosopher who's written 20 books on the inner life, including one called "Money and the Meaning of Life." Min Xuan Lee chimes in from her perspective as founder of PlayMool... posted on Oct 2, 11073 reads

Lunar Wisdom: An Interview with Anthony Aveni
According to cultural astronomer Anthony Aveni at Colgate University, the moon and the sun are in a cosmic dance that defines our very relationship to life. Yet in modern western culture, we barely know the moon's cycles, nor pay attention to the effect it has upon us. Aveni has explored the meanings attributed to the sun and the moon in cultures around the world and contrasted that with our own. ... posted on Dec 5, 12863 reads

What the Dolphin Said
Judith Simon Prager, PhD, is a writer, teacher, and clinical hypnotherapist. She has lived all over the world working as a novelist, screen writer, and journalist. However, Judith is probably best known for her method of Verbal First Aid, which teaches first responders that how they speak with a patient in an emergency situation can ultimately save that person's life, as well as speed up healing... posted on Mar 28, 17108 reads

Walking the Path of Love
In 2011, Matt Hopwood set forth on a journey through the United Kingdom and beyond to practice heart-led activism and compassion. Seeing love as the source of human connection and genuine social action, Hopwood listened to and shared as many love stories as he could. The experience ended up being incredibly meaningful to him not just because of the moving stories that came out of it but because of... posted on Mar 30, 0 reads

Pico Iyer Chooses Stillness
Pico Iyer has spent much of his life traveling. He's described himself as "something of a global creature"having been born in England to Indian parents and then raised in California, later moving to New York and now living in Japan and sought out places as a travel writer and explorer that piece together, much like his own inner world, disparate cultures and identities "to make a stained-glass who... posted on May 11, 12344 reads

How to Befriend the Universe
With unbridled exuberance and a zest for life, philosopher and comedian Emily Levine shares how she learned to love reality and death while facing her own injuries and terminal illness. Part quantum physics, part nature, some philosophy, and lots of laughs come together in this TED talk brilliantly presented by Maria Popova. In it Levine shares the revelation, "You have to understand that we don't... posted on Jun 10, 10365 reads

Counter Mapping
The use of maps on our phones and on paper, show border lines and roads that don't tell the deeper story of the land we live and travel on. Deep within the land are stories of ourselves and our ancestors that can enrich life as we rarely know it. Jim Enote is one such man who knows the soul stories that the land can hold. Jim is a traditional Zuni farmer and director of the A:shiwi A:wan Museum an... posted on Jul 17, 11111 reads

Teaching Brain Science to Monks and Nuns
Where do compassion and empathy come from? What makes life sentient?
This summer, as they have the past several years, professors from across the United States and elsewhere are traveling to three major Tibetan monastic universities in Southern India to train monastics in the philosophy of science, physics, biology, and neuroscience. Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns have grappled with these ... posted on Oct 14, 2391 reads

Maira Kalman: Daily Things to Fall in Love With
Maira Kalman would describe her life as very boring. "If most people had to live it, they would go, 'Oh, that's it?'" she says. Yet the visual storyteller, and author and illustrator of over 20 books for adults and children leads a life that would leave many with feelings of awe and fascination. Paying keen attention to its details, she is a master of introspection, curiosity, and awareness. In th... posted on Feb 14, 6661 reads

First, the Work of Paying Attention to the World
"David George Haskell is an ecologist and evolutionary biologist whose work is located at the thrumming intersection between science and poetry. He integrates rigorous research with a deeply contemplative, immersive approach, and his subjects are unexpected and revelatory. His widely acclaimed, Pulitzer-finalist book, "The Forest Unseen," chronicles the story of the universe in one square meter of... posted on Mar 22, 4993 reads

Sacred Instructions: Creation Songs
"The relationships that exist between people and place are often memorialized through defining words that merge into story. As Indigenous people, our lives comprise these words and the stories that they illustrate. These words and stories paint a picture that brings into form all of the elements of our existence. They provide a clear view of our unique cultural landscape, and they offer us a defin... posted on Feb 19, 9925 reads

A Good Death: An Interview with Stephen Jenkinson
Author of Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul, and subject of the documentary Griefwalker, palliative care counselor and theologian Stephen Jenkinson invites us to contemplate the mystery and meaning of a "good death" so we may more fully embrace life. Drawing on Buddhism and the ancestral wisdom of indigenous people, Jenkinson ponders the ways in which Western individualism has contributed ... posted on Apr 26, 21599 reads

Becoming a Blessing
"A good story is like a compass, it points to something true and invites us to orient our own direction according to it and perhaps to live a little better." With these words Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen proceeds to tell stories that enthrall and enchant and indeed help to orient us and guide us to seek to live better. She shares stories of her grandfather, whom she calls a "flaming mystic," that were t... posted on May 3, 4500 reads

Heroines of Health
This moving documentary shares "three of the many untold stories that hold the key to unlocking better health for more people around the world." The three women, one a medical doctor and teacher from India, another a midwife assistant from Indonesia, and the third the director of a community health center in Kenya, though worlds apart, share a common journey to bring hope to women and children in ... posted on May 17, 1887 reads

Coastal Communication: A Mother and Son's Moving Collaboration
When New York based author and social activist, Jane Jackson suffered an aneurysm, it affected both her memory and language skills. Over the months that followed she recovered through the unconditional support of her family, and the power of poetry. As a way to promote healing and reestablish language skills, she and her son began writing poems together. The poems were crafted line by line in emai... posted on Jun 29, 9349 reads

The Lost Words: Reclaiming the Language of Nature
"In early 2015, when the 10,000-entry Oxford children's dictionary dropped around fifty words related to nature -- words like fern, willow, and starling -- in favor of terms like broadband and cut and paste, some of the worlds most prominent authors composed an open letter of protest and alarm at this impoverishment of children's vocabulary and its consequent diminishment of children's belonging t... posted on Jul 23, 12502 reads

Gratefulness Embraces Parkinson's
"I was diagnosed with Parkinson's just over three years ago when I was 50. Receiving the diagnosis from a matter-of-fact doctor was a traumatizing experience, and I felt that my life and my family's identity had collapsed. Life was difficult and still is difficult, yet something amazing is beginning to happen. I have slowly started to shift my attitude from the anger, fear, and loneliness brought ... posted on Aug 4, 6770 reads

Toni Morrison: On Borders and Belonging
"What does home mean and where do we anchor our belonging in a world of violent alienation and alienating violence? I use "alien" here both in the proper etymological sense rooted in the Latin alienus, "belonging to another," and in the astrophysical sense of "from another planet," "not human," for the combined effect of a dehumanizing assault on belonging for those treated and mistreated as alien... posted on Aug 7, 7627 reads

Janwaar Castle: A Modern Skate Park in Rural India
When is a skatepark more than a skatepark? When it is Janwaar Castle, a local playground in Janwaar village. Between 50-60 children visit the park every day where they learn English, music, dance, painting, 3D modelling, and general life skills. It is a place where Adivasis and Yadavs, boys and girls, and all age groups play together. There are two rules: no school no skating and girls first. Sinc... posted on Sep 10, 4191 reads

Inner Preacher vs Inner Teacher
Between message and meaning, "Art is co-created by artist and audience, by writer and reader." In this Ursula K. Le Guin essay, Maria Popova explores the questions of where to find strength and hope, what is a writer's calling in this time and place, what work will make a difference, and how we might create a community of purpose. To each, Le Guin's answer is in trying to write well. Writing is no... posted on Sep 9, 4961 reads

Protect. Restore. Fund.
Climate activists Greta Thunberg and George Monbiot talk about solutions to the problem of anthropogenic global warming: a combination of leaving fossil fuels in the ground and protecting and restoring living ecosystems like forests, mangroves, swamps and seabeds that can pull enormous quantities of carbon from the air and store them safely, naturally. Current government subsidies around the world... posted on Sep 27, 1929 reads

While I Yet Live
The quilters of rural Gee's Bend, Alabama, many of whom are descendants of slaves, learned to quilt from their mothers and grandmothers. They also learned, sitting under the quilting table as small children, valuable life lessons, and the hopes and dreams their families had for them. Their brightly colored quilts speak of love, peace, joy, and the value of hard work. Like their mothers and grandmo... posted on Oct 20, 2815 reads