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, 5509 reads

The World's Last Nomadic Peoples
"From Jeroen Toirkens comes 'Nomad' -- a fascinating and strikingly beautiful visual anthropology of the Northern Hemispheres last living nomadic peoples, from Greenland to Turkey. A decade in the making, this multi-continent journey unfolds in 150 black-and-white and full-color photos that reveal what feels like an alternate reality of a life often harsh, sometimes poetic, devoid of many of our m... posted on Mar 28, 5473 reads

Wish You Were Here: Postcards from the Future
"We invited other artists--people who process the world through making--to create their own postcards in the face of the naked truths of climate change. We asked them to join us in a written and visual chorus to the young people dearest to us and to everyone on Earth, now and in the future. You can see what came out here: intimate and urgent messages written for loved ones and for people we will n... posted on Mar 29, 3996 reads

Crisis Kitchen
Crisis Kitchen is a mutual aid group that has emerged during the coronavirus pandemic in Portland, Oregon, as a means to help people thrive. It was begun by laid off restaurant workers as the COVID-19 pandemic worsened and caused more and more people to become food insecure. High quality, delicious meals are prepared and delivered by volunteers, utilizing donated space and are available for free. ... posted on Apr 16, 1783 reads

Motherhood: Facing & Finding Yourself
"Bestselling author and psychologist James Hillman proposed what he called the acorn theory of psychological development. He contended that we each enter the world carrying something unique that asks to be lived out through us. Just as the destiny of the oak tree is contained within the acorn, we arrive in life with something we need to do and someone we need to become. What waits to awaken in eac... posted on Apr 20, 8467 reads

Karma Quilts: One Woman's Labor of Love Offering
"In her heartwarming book, My Grandfather's Blessings, Rachel Remen says, "You do not need money to be a philanthropist. We all have assets. You can befriend life with your bare hands." I am grateful for being able to befriend life with my bare hands through the making of quilts and prayer shawls." Jane Jackson is a mother, grandmother, former mid-wife, writer and much more. Over the decades she h... posted on Apr 29, 7246 reads

For Small Creatures Such as We
In "For Small Creatures Such as We" Sasha Sagan, daughter of astronomer Carl Sagan, "explores the worlds of ritual and tradition from a scientific viewpoint. Sagan is non-religious, much like her science-minded parents. When she became a mother, she wanted to find a way to incorporate ritual and tradition into her family in a way that, instead of religion, reflected her passion for space, science ... posted on May 5, 3692 reads

Joy Harjo: The Whole of Time
"Though we have instructions and a map buried in our hearts when we enter this world," the extraordinary Joy Harjo has written, "nothing quite prepares us for the abrupt shift to the breathing realm." She is a saxophone player and performer, a visual artist, a member of the Muscogee Creek Nation, and the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States. She opens up with Krista Tippett about her life, drea... posted on May 24, 5745 reads

The Way of the Nomad
A "global nomad" with strong African roots, Wakanyi Hoffman and her husband have been raising their four multicultural and mixed race children across seven countries, three continents, on a mission to teach them to embrace the whole world as their home. They have called Kenya, United States, Nepal, Philippines, Ethiopia, Thailand and now the Netherlands home. "Life as a nomad, as we had come to un... posted on Jun 5, 4824 reads

Echoes of the Invisible
A blind man runs alone through Death Valley. Journalist Paul Salopek walks 21,000 miles across the world to retrace our ancestor's migration, manifesting "slow journalism." Science writer Anil Ananthaswamy seeks out the silent places on earth where "extreme physics" is being done both by cosmologists and monks. Photographer Rachel Sussman struggles to capture the oldest living organisms on the pla... posted on Jun 27, 7010 reads

The Stillness of the Living Forest
""I need to get away for awhile." It's a recurring and persistent internal refrain for many of us. John Harvey did just that. And his book, The Stillness of the Living Forest: A Year of Listening and Learning is not only an insightful look into his experience but, perhaps more importantly, it's a call from the wild to the part in us longing to reconnect with something visceral and real; a promise ... posted on Jun 30, 4051 reads

Leaf Seligman: On Redemption and Beautiful Scars
"As humans, we inevitably experience harm: we feel hurt, we get hurt, and we hurt others. We free ourselves from this experience not by imagining we can escape harm but knowing we can heal it--moving from wound to scar--and then learning to love the scars. This can, of course, be the work of a lifetime. Luckily, I have long loved scars. When I was four, I accidentally cut my left eye. As a result,... posted on Jul 4, 5311 reads

Rewilding a Mountain
The sagebrush sea is a landscape of stark beauty and captivating wildlife, yet rapid desertification and extractive industries threaten this vast basin. But at Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge in Southeastern Oregon, a different story unfolds. New aspen explode alongside thriving creeks, migratory birds travel thousands of miles to nest in willow branches, and even the endangered sage grouse... posted on Jul 18, 2081 reads

Remothering the Land
Soil and water are the beginnings of all things that sustain life. The indigenous women of Sogorea Te' Land Trust know this from their ancestors long ago and from the call of the children yet to be born in the future. There is a sacred bond to Mother Earth that invites each of us to respect nature wherever we live. It is for this reason that the sustainable gardens at Sogorea Te' are being maintai... posted on Aug 13, 1702 reads

Be Earth Now
"In Rainer Maria Rilkes seminal collection of poetry, The Book of Hours: Love Poems to God, the great twentieth-century poet explores the nature ofand his relationship toGod through divinely received prayers. Nearly twenty-five years ago, Anita Barrows, an award-winning poet and translator, and Joanna Macy, a Buddhist scholar and eco-philosopher, collaborated to translate this collection. Now, on ... posted on Aug 29, 3314 reads

Knepp Rewilded
Knepp Estate in Sussex, England has led the way in "rewilding" farms since the 1970s. Rewilding is also called conservation farming with the idea of allowing nature to take over. The caretakers have gradually allowed plants and animals to roam and grow without human intervention until it is time to take the livestock to market. This philosophy of farming is like taking one's hands off the steering... posted on Sep 10, 1752 reads

I Am the Triangular Window in a Mud Hut
"I have overheard pale-skinned visitors to this refugee camp speak of windows as large as a cow and covered by glass that slides wide open. Those stories sound absurd. Such windows would be completely impractical! We Dinka windows allow in some air, of course; but first and foremost, we are designed for safety and comfort. Look at my size and shape: a triangle smaller than a cracked plate." In th... posted on Sep 16, 4945 reads

Getting Back in Time
"Time has a hold on us, there is no escaping it. Sometimes it can seem to govern our lives: we're pressed for it; we don't have any; it's running out. We need to be on time and in time. At other 'times' we can find we have got time on our hands -- or better, the ease of having all the time in the world. It is such a vital aspect of our lives that telling the time is one of the first skills we teac... posted on Sep 28, 3713 reads

Radical Self-Care for Survivors of Suicide Loss
"What does self-care mean, and what does it involve? Simply put, it implies -- physical, emotional, psychological, social and spiritual care. The very idea of survivors of suicide loss practicing self-care can seem radical. The stigma, shame, secrecy and silence that a survivor faces invisibilizes, erases and marginalizes any of their valid concerns. Equally relevant, most survivors themselves fee... posted on Nov 27, 4568 reads

Trauma: The Invisible Epidemic
Dr Paul Conti is the author of 'Trauma: The Invisible Epidemic: How Trauma Works and How We Can Heal From It' In the following interview he speaks with Tami Simon "about healing the unresolved trauma we hold inside both individually and collectively. They also discuss how trauma operates differently in different people, overcoming "reflexive shame," self-inquiry and the embrace of a "true life nar... posted on Oct 27, 0 reads

A School for Refugees -- By Refugees
Refugees who have fled their native lands in search of a place to live safely and to be treated as human beings often find themselves stuck for several years in an environment which can be unwelcoming and even hostile. A group of refugees in Indonesia established a school so that their children could learn basic education while being offered a chance at normalcy through social interaction. Childre... posted on Oct 29, 1084 reads

Wim Hof: The Cold as a Noble Force
"Wim Hof is an athlete and extremophile daredevil nicknamed The Iceman for his feats of withstanding extreme weather conditions. The holder of more than 20 Guinness World Records, Wim attributes his endurance to specific meditation and breathing techniques. In this intriguing episode of Insights at the Edge, Tami Simon speaks with Wim about the Wim Hof Method of exercises, mindfulness techniques, ... posted on Nov 2, 3319 reads

7 Principles of Gardening
"My first principle is to learn gardening from the wilderness outside the garden gate. As I work to keep the links alive between the wild land and the cultivated row, I get my clearest gardening instruction from listening to the voice of the watershed that surrounds our garden. I know that January is the time to prune our Japanese Elephant Heart plum in the garden, but just when in January is alwa... posted on Nov 19, 5445 reads

How An Apple Tree Transformed My Life
"I was in between creative projects and feeling the need to do something more dynamic with my energy than sitting at the computer sending and receiving emails, so I followed an impulse to a local biodynamic farm and got a job picking apples during the last six weeks of harvest. The notion was quite romantic initially...I'd spend my days wandering the orchard rows connecting with my Muse, and my ev... posted on Dec 5, 4111 reads

From Bullets to Bangles
"I am happier now, after the angst of my earlier years. Those years were rough. I started life in a factory as a coiled mix of copper and zinc being pressed into a small, cup-like shape. Then I was pulled mechanically into a cylinder and stretched to form a tight tube. Even the memory is painful: in order to be stretched without breaking, I had to be heated, annealed, pickled, rinsed, and measure... posted on Dec 13, 2215 reads

Words Can Change Your Brain
"We wrote this book to help people to speak more honestly with each other, and to listen to each other more deeply. And we also wrote this book because the newest findings in neuroscience can teach us how to become better communicators, how to build deeper bonds of trust, and how to resolve conflicts without getting frightened or mad. We wrote this book to talk about the power of words, but we als... posted on Jan 6, 11271 reads

Jane Hirshfield: The Fullness of Things
"The esteemed writer Jane Hirshfield has been a Zen monk and a visiting artist among neuroscientists. She has said this: 'It's my nature to question, to look at the opposite side. I believe that the best writing also does this... It tells us that where there is sorrow, there will be joy; where there is joy, there will be sorrow... The acknowledgement of the fully complex scope of being is why good... posted on Jan 12, 4786 reads

Prayer for the Earth: An Indigenous Response to these Times
In his lifetime Stan Rushworth, an elder of Cherokee descent who was raised by his grandfather, has seen a river die, animals disappear, and the proliferation of box stores. The devastation of climate change is not new to him - his elders have been telling him about it all of his life. The traditional indigenous wisdom that is needed now is looking at how indigenous populations have managed to sur... posted on Jan 23, 3102 reads

What is Holding it Together?
"Words are delicious, but cannot say much. They often lose the water of meaning before it is delivered. But they can be stirred to form descriptions of the breath, glances, gestures, and pulses between lives. Perhaps writing is finding a scrape in the skin of knowing, where the sting and dirt and blood of the day is let out, and music is let in." The following excerpt, by Nora Bateson, noted resea... posted on Jan 26, 3042 reads

Being Simply Beautiful
We are surrounded by the stuff that we think is so valuable and important, but take it all away and what is left? The real you is left. Or at least the journey to the real you without all the stuff that you think defines you. In this video, Theo Du Plessis of South Africa, had a "Damascus moment" that opened him up to the only question he asks himself now before acquiring possessions or pursuing e... posted on Jan 29, 3337 reads

Thich Nhat Hanh: Ten Love Letters to the Earth
"Dear Mother Earth, I bow my head before you as I look deeply and recognize that you are present in me and that I'm a part of you. I was born from you and you are always present, offering me everything I need for my nourishment and growth. My mother, my father, and all my ancestors are also your children. We breathe your fresh air. We drink your clear water. We eat your nourishing food. Your herbs... posted on Feb 3, 11340 reads

A World Held Sacred...
"'Peace is Every Step,' Thich Nhat Hanh reminded us throughout his life and work. In this spirit, in the face of the concerted violence currently being waged against the Ukrainian people, we share the following resources to offer inspiration and support for the embodiment and expression of peace. Grateful living reminds us that every moment holds the opportunity for reflection, perspective-taking,... posted on Mar 1, 3125 reads

Greater Good Resources for Peace & Conflict
"As an educational nonprofit, the best we can do, perhaps, is to remind ourselves and our readers that peace is always possible, the vast majority of people resist killing, even the most violent primates are capable of change, there are steps we can all take to bridge our differences, and activism can make the world a better place." In the wake of the invasion of Ukraine, the Greater Good Science ... posted on Mar 8, 2777 reads

Spiritual Listening
"Spiritual listening is at the heart of all relationships. It is what we experience when we become a quiet, safe container into which the speaker is able to express his or her most genuine voice. There is a communion of souls. The way we listen to each other sets a tone for everything that follows. We often think that our speaking, the words we use, is the most important part of our communicatio... posted on Mar 9, 7526 reads

Finding Joy in the Unknown
"Writing was a way for me to communicate," says Dara McAnulty, "I didn't like to speak to people. In fact, I spoke to basically nobody outside of close family, and any conversation I had outside of that was incredibly awkward and I hated every second of it. Writing, on the other hand, I found incredibly easy to do. It was something where I could take what was going on in my mind and put it into so... posted on Mar 29, 3107 reads

The Two-Spirit Diplomat Who Mediated Two Worlds
"In Washington, D.C., a visiting celebrity of 1885 was from the Zuni tribe of the southwestern United States. Described as a priestess and a princess, the young woman named WeWha was 6 feet tall, with a self-possessed and dignified demeanor. WeWha had come to Washington on a diplomatic mission to represent the Zuni people, and her activities were reported in the newspapers. She demonstrated tradit... posted on Apr 5, 3826 reads

Being Simply Beautiful
We are surrounded by the stuff that we think is so valuable and important, but take it all away and what is left? The real you is left. Or at least the journey to the real you without all the stuff that you think defines you. In this video, Theo Du Plessis of South Africa, had a "Damascus moment" that opened him up to the only question he asks himself now before acquiring possessions or pursuing e... posted on Apr 9, 2942 reads

Children, Anger Control and Inuit Wisdom
Traditional Inuit parenting is incredibly nurturing and tender. If you took all the parenting styles around the world and ranked them by their gentleness, the Inuit approach would likely rank near the top. (They even have a special kiss for babies, where you put your nose against the cheek and sniff the skin.) The culture views scolding -- or even speaking to children in an angry voice -- as inapp... posted on Apr 22, 4465 reads

Why Did We Stop Believing that People Can Change?
"Belief in the fixity rather than the fluidity of human nature or maybe in guilt without redemption shows up everywhere -- not just in the formal legal system that decides questions of innocence, guilt and responsibility but also in the social sphere, in which we render verdicts replete with both unexamined assumptions about human nature and prejudices for and against particular kinds of people an... posted on Apr 24, 3309 reads

They Still Draw Pictures
""They still draw pictures!" So wrote the editors of an influential collection of childrens art that was compiled in 1938 during the Spanish Civil War. Eighty years later, war continues to upend children's lives in Ukraine, Yemen and elsewhere. In January, UNICEF projected that 177 million children worldwide would require assistance due to war and political instability in 2022. This included 12 mi... posted on May 28, 3742 reads

Why Rivers Should Have The Same Rights as Us
Who is water? This question presents a fundamental change in thinking by giving legal personhood to water and will transform our approach to water as a culture. In this TED talk, Kelsey Leonard argues that water needs legal rights just as people do. Leonard is a legal scholar and scientist in the the Shinnecock Nation--an indigenous tribe of people in the state of California, USA. Her tribe believ... posted on Jun 10, 1207 reads

Returning to the Art of the Unknowable
"Colin Tudge is a science writer and broadcaster who is best known for his work on agriculture and the environment, with books such as 'Feeding People is Easy' and 'The Variety of Life'. His latest publication, 'The Great Rethink,' advocating a radically new approach to food production, was reviewed by Beshara Magazine last year. In this article, he argues that at the root of our contemporary prob... posted on Jun 27, 1855 reads

Perceptual Intelligence: Gathering Deep Knowledge
"One cannot know a forest by walking it only once. It takes several full cycles of the seasons, and regular explorations during that time, preferably daily, to even begin to know a place. Where are its berry trees and when are the berries ripe? Where are its meltwater ponds in the spring? Where is the nearest raccoon den, and how often do you normally see them out and about? When do the maple tree... posted on Jul 18, 2104 reads

The Egg: A Short Story By Andy Weir
"You were on your way home when you died.
It was a car accident. Nothing particularly remarkable, but fatal nonetheless. You left behind a wife and two children. It was a painless death. The EMTs tried their best to save you, but to no avail. Your body was so utterly shattered you were better off, trust me.
And that's when you met me.
"What...what happened?" You asked. "Where ... posted on Jul 25, 16636 reads

Peter Singer: The Life You Can Save
"Say you're walking past a shallow pond and see a child drowning. Would you try to rescue the child?
That's the famous "drowning child" scenario that Peter Singer, the Australian philosopher, presented in his 1972 article "Famine, Affluence, and Morality." He points out there could be some minor inconveniences -- you'd get wet and muddy and would probably have to change your clothes. But, o... posted on Aug 10, 2387 reads

This Rising Up
This Climbing PoeTree music video highlights modern day freedom fighters and champions of justice by celebrating the beauty, power, talent, brilliance and humanity of Black people. Through powerful lyrics, music and dance, it is a triumphant acknowledgement that dignity, safety and self determination are all necessary to overcome dehumanizing terror and to ensure that justice prevails.... posted on Aug 13, 1460 reads

Beauty in the Natural World
"Do we always prefer the harmonious to the discordant, whatever that distinction might look like to us? It is not my place to say that the music youre listening to sounds terrible. On that note, harmony is very much its own kind of beautiful, and it looks and feels like different things to all of us. For me, harmony is found in the way tree branches will sometimes grow curving around to hold each ... posted on Sep 4, 1841 reads

Charles Foster: Against Nature Writing
"There's a wood near us. I can't see the wood for the words. Probably the wood is wonderful. My intuition tells me it is. But unless intuition is knowledge, I really don't know. And even if intuition is knowledge, all that I get from my intuition is the generic assertion, "This wood is wonderful." I cant see any particulars. I can't get an uninterrupted view of a flower petal or the hair on a cate... posted on Sep 10, 1468 reads

The Power of the Bittersweet
"The bittersweet is...an authentic and elevating response to the problem of being alive in a deeply flawed yet stubbornly beautiful world. Most of all, bittersweetness shows us how to respond to pain: by acknowledging it, and attempting to turn it into art, the way the musicians do, or healing, or innovation, or anything else that nourishes the soul. If we don't transform our sorrows and longings,... posted on Sep 17, 2054 reads

Peace Pilgrim: A Life of Service
"On January 1, 1953, at age 44, Mildred Lisette Norman changed her name to Peace Pilgrim, put
on a pair of canvas sneakers, donned dark blue slacks, blouse, and a tunic--on which she had
sown her new name--and set out to walk the length of the country leaving from Pasadena, CA...She would walk non-stop for the next 28 years, weaving back and forth across the country, and
makin... posted on Sep 25, 2354 reads