Opening Doors and Hearts
Opening a door is more than a physical act. It's about putting yourself out there, getting to know people, making them feel comfortable, and making them feel welcome. After being bullied, Josh Yandt decided to make a change that ultimately had a dramatic impact on his life and on the lives of his fellow students. Watch this sweet story of how the London, Ontario, high school paid forward Josh's ac... posted on Mar 29, 5370 reads

Before I Go: A Neurosurgeon's Final Reflections On Mortality
Einstein was one of the first to confirm that time and space are truly relative phenomena, and no where is relativity more palpable than in the operating room of a hospital. For neurosurgeon Paul Kalanithi, time as he knew it underwent a radical shift when he was diagnosed with metastatic lung cancer. From the rush of the operating room to the tortoise trudge of rest and uncertain recovery, Paul, ... posted on Mar 30, 66550 reads

Everybody Is Good At Something: Meeting VR Ferose
V. R. Ferose was a rising star at SAP in Bangalore when he first found out that his son Vivaan was on the Autism spectrum. He locked himself in his bathroom and cried for a half hour. His friend, on the other hand, congratulated him: "A lot of people struggle to find a purpose, but you're lucky that you purpose has found you." Indeed, Ferose and his wife found their purpose. "My wife...decided to ... posted on May 27, 28502 reads

What Makes A Great Workplace?
How many of us truly love our jobs? With longer work hours, and less opportunity for creativity and personal advancement - it's no wonder so many of us dread that Monday morning return to work. But, what alternatives do we have? It turns out - there are plenty. In his new book, The Best Place to Work: The Art and Science of Creating an Extraordinary Workplace psychologist Ron Friedman explores the... posted on Apr 21, 193160 reads

What Does It Mean To Be Fully Human
"To be fully human is really to discover who I am ... To discover who I am is to discover also the unity between my head and my heart." Jean Vanier answers some "big questions" including "what does it mean to be fully human"-- questions that are the hallmark of the Templeton Prize. Vanier is the 2015 Templeton Prize Laureate for his work with L'Arche, a revolutionary international network of commu... posted on Apr 5, 6011 reads

The Blind Man & Armless Friend Who Planted Over 10,000 Trees
"Looking at the lush, green, tree-filled stretch of land north of the Yeli Village in China, it's hard to imagine that just 12 years ago, those plains were filled with nothing but rocks and weeds. This miraculous transformation is all thanks to the hard work and dedication of an elderly blind man named Jia Haixia and his friend Jia Wenqi, a double amputee with no arms. For more than 10 years, the ... posted on Apr 27, 30639 reads

Once-Homeless Man Revolutionizing Care for the Homeless
"Barsema remembered what it was like to be homeless and at the end of his rope. He'd faced a series of challenges early in life -- he'd lost everything after a struggle with alcoholism cost him his marriage, his home, and his real estate business. That led him to a mountaintop in Alaska, where he meant to commit suicide." Luckily, Barsema's parents took him in and helped him slowly bounce back. Fi... posted on Jun 4, 14339 reads

Life Starts at the Edge of Our Comfort Zone
"The sounds of a dance tune blast through the carriage and the man erupts into dance. Half smiles, awkward glances. But then one lady gets up and joins him. A man joins them. Others stand up, hesitantly at first but then exploding into uninhibited dance. Soon virtually everyone is up dancing. Smiles shine out as strangers dance through the train. Barriers drop, fears evaporate and joy emanates." V... posted on Jun 3, 24259 reads

The Cross Road of Should & Must
"When we choose Should, we're choosing to live our life for someone or something other than ourselves. The journey to Should can be smooth, the rewards can seem clear, and the options are often plentiful...Must is different. Must is who we are, what we believe, and what we do when we are alone with our truest, most authentic self. It's that which calls to us most deeply. It's our convictions, our ... posted on Jul 1, 15718 reads

Start Before You Feel Ready
"Start now, just get on and do it." That's the sort of advice given by billionaire, Richard Branson -- and, his life is a testimony to this simple principle. In fact, Branson has started so many new adventures in his life -- businesses, charities, and expeditions - that it's unlikely he ever felt "ready" to start any of them. But, isn't that sometimes what makes the difference? Forging ahead in l... posted on Jun 25, 24657 reads

Jacob Needleman on Money and the Meaning of Life
How do we bridge the inner realm of spirit with the outer world of material? Writer and philosopher Jerry Needleman has been pondering this question (and many others) for years. Here in a fascinating dialogue he shares his perspectives on "Money and the Meaning of Life."... posted on Jul 4, 6496 reads

A Common Humanity: A Conversation with Bob Sadler
I began thinking, What am I doing this for? And I just stopped and relaxed. Something shifted in me and I took in the moment. I saw what was in front of me. Sadler describes the moment that marked a turning point and led to the remarkable story detailed here, of how Sadlers photos of homeless men have been transforming lives.... posted on Jun 13, 16087 reads

The Gift of Being Sincerely Enthusiastic
Here's a seemingly simple question: Which type of individual would you rather hang out with -- a positive, fun-loving person, or a mean-spirited, highly critical and negative person? As best seller author and blogger Gretchen Rubin sees it -- and further backed up by studies -- the answer for many is surprisingly not as cut and dry as you might think. Enjoy her eye-opening take on this ongoing bat... posted on Jun 18, 14043 reads

Building a Reading Revolution
As more and more people obsessively stare into their smart phones and tablets, the world seemingly grows a little more disconnected. But the folks at The Reader Organization, an award-winning charity and social enterprise, have gone about reversing that trend by offering to get people together to simply read aloud to each other. The benefits of this straightforward exercise are quite evident: impr... posted on Jul 3, 10154 reads

One Hundred Thank Yous
For a year and a half, artist Lori Portka painted her gratitude through individual pieces of art for 100 people who have made a difference in her life. In her effort to truly live a life of gratitude, Lori learned that gratitude grows, and grows, and grows. "The more that I focused on gratitude, the more I was grateful for." This beautiful film captures Lori's motivation and some of the reactions ... posted on Jul 5, 5376 reads

Can Compassion Change the World?
In this year of his 80th birthday, the Dalai Lama has collaborated with psychologist and bestselling "Emotional Intelligence" author Daniel Goleman to issue a call to action for creating a more compassionate world. To write "A Force for Good: The Dalai Lama's Vision for Our World," Daniel Goleman synthesized cutting-edge research from places like Stanford, Emory, and the University of Wisconsin to... posted on Jul 9, 20685 reads

We Can't Eat GDP
What does GDP - gross domestic product - fail to account for? When we really start to dig into the numbers, we find that this long-held standard for a country's "success" ignores many of the positives (and negatives) that determine a population's welfare and well-being. But new possibilities are already out there. Lorenzo Fioramonti shares exciting ideas for new measurements of progress, and what ... posted on Aug 22, 13458 reads

Surprising Lessons from Nature's Engineers
Biomimicry is the design and production of materials, structures, and systems that are modeled on biological entities and processes. In this eye-opening Ted Talk, Janine Benyus offers up some incredible insight into the fast-growing world of biomimicry and all the promise it holds for humankind. As Benyus states in her talk, "Learning "about" the natural world is one thing; learning "from" the nat... posted on Aug 19, 9930 reads

Three Tricks to Help Find Your Flow
As more and more things continue to drain and distract our attention, it is imperative that we uncover ways to gain back our focus. In this inspiring article, Dr. Christine Carter, author of "The Sweet Spot," details three tricks to help create an environment that is relaxed, comfortable and productive, versus a mental state that is filled with anxiety and stress.... posted on Aug 21, 30533 reads

The Importance of Swapping Screen Time For Sunshine
In How to Raise a Wild Child, Dr. Scott D. Sampson asserts that topophilia, a love of place, is the key to restoring sustainability on our planet. As chief curator at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and host of the PBS KIDS television series Dinosaur Train, he argues that the current disconnect between kids and the natural world is a threat to their physical, mental, and emotional health. ... posted on Sep 3, 17574 reads

How One Artist Is Transforming Fear
"Julie Elman, like many artists, struggles with fear of the blank page. The creative process demands risk-taking, resilience, and messiness. An associate professor of visual communication at Ohio University, Elman understood the expectation to practice what she preached. To move beyond her fear and to explore what she was teaching her students, she conceived the Fear Project. People submit their f... posted on Sep 17, 9891 reads

Wendell Berry on How to Be a Poet
"Although poetry itself exerts a singular power over the human spirit... it is hardly a power that comes easily to the poet." In his poem, titled "How to Be a Poet (to remind myself)," the wise and wonderful poet Wendell Berry reminds us of the "vitalizing power of silence and stillness and self-refinement" which are so essential to being a poet, an artist of any kind, and really, a complete human... posted on Oct 17, 14972 reads

Understanding The People We Serve
While there is a huge appetite in development agencies for quantitative data on objective things like health, wealth and education, data on what people actually think lags far behind. And when the United Nations and the Overseas Development Institute finally asked 7.5 million people around the world about their priorities for themselves and their families., more than 80 per cent felt that what hap... posted on Sep 27, 5577 reads

Children Who Shine From Within
In this moving tribute to her daughter, Rachel Macy Stafford reminds us to look for the light within all children. "And it's that time -- time for back-to-school outfits, team tryouts, classroom assessments, and after school clubs. The Butterflies will be noticed. So brilliant. So colorful. Their talents so obvious. But let us not forget the Fireflies. Their triumphs are quiet and unsuspecting. Th... posted on Oct 4, 32825 reads

Walking the World at Three Miles an Hour
Polly Letofsky is the only woman to have walked across the world. She started in 1999 and took over five years. She tells, in an amazing interview, how you need to walk across at least four continents, cover at least 14,000 miles, and get signatures along the way of people who see you walk every day. She got into the Guinness Book of World Records but her own personal motivation was "to discover t... posted on Oct 1, 10233 reads

Leave No Child Inside
In the face-off between children's need for nature and the planet's growing need for more housing, one child, Richard Louv, fought urbanization of his cherished woods, then grew up to write a book about it -- "Last Child in the Woods." A developer who read it was "profoundly disturbed," joined a children-and-nature movement that grows in every arena, from conservation and health to urban design an... posted on Sep 22, 6860 reads

Leadership Lessons From Specially Abled Children
"I was of course at that time focusing on autism specifically. I kind of had a personal understanding of the situation. That led to a very interesting conversation with a very dear friend from Denmark, Thorkil Sonne, who also had a son with autism and who started a software company where all his employees were people on the spectrum. I met him, I tried to understand the model that he is working on... posted on Oct 10, 9039 reads

7200 Kites Flying for Peace and Dignity
This short excerpt from the feature documentary film, Flying Paper, is an uplifting story of Palestinian children in Gaza engaged in the age-old tradition of kite making and flying. The driving narrative of the film centers on a remarkable quest, but showcases the determination and artistic expression of the youth that come together to achieve a shared goal. This quest is a beautiful form of creat... posted on Sep 30, 2696 reads

Goethe's Poems for the Skies
"Since the dawn of our species, the water cycle's most visible expression in the skies --[clouds]-- has bewitched artists, poets, and scientists [...] as a beautiful natural metaphor for the philosophy that there in an inherent balance to life, that what we give will soon be replenished." Here, we read about the "singular quality of prayerfulness to clouds -- a certain secular reverence undergird... posted on Nov 5, 16467 reads

The Little Gardener: A Parable On The Power of Working with Love
"The Little Gardener" is a picture book by Emily Hughes, which is "at heart a parable of purpose -- tender assurance for anyone who has ever undertaken a labor of love against seemingly insurmountable odds and persevered through hardship, continuing to nourishing that labor until the love emanates out, becomes contagious, and draws in kindred spirits as a centripetal force of shared purpose and en... posted on Nov 19, 7412 reads

4 Ways to Build a Positive School
"Schools are a slice of humanity: Everyone brings both their wonderful innate goodness and their challenging globby muck to the classroom. Creating a safe and supportive school culture is one of the most difficult tasks principals face as fearless school leaders. When they succeed, it helps everyone -- students, teachers, and themselves -- bring out the goodness and reduce the muck."... posted on Nov 11, 13948 reads

A Small Town's Beautiful Gift to a Child
At two, Evan Leversage was diagnosed with brain cancer. In the five years since then he has been through extensive chemo and radiation treatments. When the family recently learned that his tumor had grown, and that there were no guarantees on how much time he had left, they had Evan make a bucket list. On it was a trip to Niagara Falls, a movie and his favorite restaurant. Also: Christmas. When ... posted on Nov 7, 11192 reads

Mandela: An Exemplar of Lifelong Learning
Nelson Mandela's remarkable spirit and life story are celebrated the world over. Author Karen MacGregor takes a deeper look into how Mandela used his time on earth as a lifelong learning experience. From formal higher education, to tribal and political education, and then of course, to prison education, the breadth and depth of Mandela's learning is truly remarkable. ... posted on Dec 30, 6087 reads

Three Ways To Bring More Kindness To Your Life
"One of the best ways to increase our own happiness is to do things that make other people happy. In countless studies, kindness and generosity have been linked to greater life satisfaction, stronger relationships, and better mental and physical health-- generous people even live longer." Researchers have argued that kindness is like a muscle that needs to be strengthened through repeated use. H... posted on Dec 12, 21561 reads

The Joys of Giving Large
Jeff Kaufman and Julia Wise are a young couple living in Boston. Jeff is a software engineer at Google and Julia is a social worker. For the past few years they've been giving away nearly 60 percent of their after-tax income to charities working to reduce poverty and save lives in developing countries. ...That's a lot of money, and it sounds like a big sacrifice. But they insist that it isn't...... posted on Dec 5, 11165 reads

Have Wheels Will Shower: Bathroom Buses for the Homeless
If you woke up this morning and showered in the privacy of your own bathroom, consider yourself lucky: America's nearly 600,000 homeless people often don't have a clean place to clean up. But in San Francisco, where the number of homeless has risen seven percent in the last decade, a non-profit organization is putting bathrooms on wheels and driving them to those in need. The group Lava Mae, whose... posted on Jan 6, 11661 reads

A Love Letter to the Wilderness
This love letter to wilderness celebrates the 50th anniversary of the 1964 Wilderness Act with stunning images and excerpts of poetry and words on wilderness from Edward Abbey, Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Muir and Wallace Stegner. In 50 years, the designated wilderness areas in the United States has grown from nine to 109 million acres, including national forests, national parks, national wildlife r... posted on Jan 3, 5350 reads

Love Life: An Inspiring Journey Spurred by Tragedy
It's impossible to miss Steve Fugate's message when you catch sight of him, an older man pulling a cart of water and supplies. The message emblazoned in big red letters on the sign he carries is simple: "LOVE LIFE." For the last decade and a half 67-year-old Fugate has been walking across America spreading that message town-by-town in every state on the mainland. His mission? "To mend the broken h... posted on Jan 28, 0 reads

95-Year-Old Musician Gets Band Back Together
"Edward Hardy had played with a jazz quartet for nearly 40 years when dementia took hold. Then he moved into a care facility and lost touch with his ensemble. But now the 95-year-old jazz pianist is reliving his musical heyday in his retirement community. With the help of workers at the UK facility where he lives, Hardy was able to post an online ad looking for volunteers to visit him and jam. The... posted on Feb 14, 6126 reads

The Anatomy of Gratitude
Brother David Steindl-Rast, Benedictine monk, teacher and author, speaks with Krista Tippett about gratitude -- a practice increasingly recognized as a key to human well-being. An early pioneer, along with Thomas Merton, of dialogue between Christian and Buddhist monastics, he sees mysticism as the birthright of every human being. And his anatomy of gratitude is full-blooded, reality-based, and re... posted on Feb 9, 20983 reads

Today We're His Family: Teen Volunteers Mourn Stranger's Death
"On the drive to Fairview Cemetery in the Boston neighborhood of Hyde Park, six seniors from Roxbury Latin boys' school sit in silent reflection. Mike Pojman, the school's assistant headmaster and senior adviser, says the trip is a massive contrast to the rest of their school day, and to their lives as a whole right now. Today the teens have volunteered to be pallbearers for a man who died alone i... posted on Feb 5, 6099 reads

The World's Happiest Man on Altruism
""Matthieu Ricard, also known as 'the world's happiest man', spent the best part of 25 years in the Himalayas with barely any contact with the Western world he was born into. At 26-years-old he left behind his molecular biology studies and settled into a life of serenity and spiritual training. However, he is now very much back on the Western scene. When I ask Ricard why he returned, he sighs and ... posted on Feb 20, 26947 reads

What Makes A Person?: Identity's 7 Layers
A persons identity, Amin Maalouf wrote as he contemplated what he so poetically called the genes of the soul, is like a pattern drawn on a tightly stretched parchment. Touch just one part of it, just one allegiance, and the whole person will react, the whole drum will sound. And yet we are increasingly pressured to parcel ourselves out in various social contexts, lacerating the parchment of our id... posted on Mar 7, 17305 reads

The Magic Shop of the Brain
James Doty is a Stanford brain surgeon and a leading convener of research on compassion. In 1968, he wandered into a magic shop and met a woman who taught him what she called "another kind of magic" that freed him from being a victim of life circumstances. Now, James is on the cutting edge of knowledge of how the brain and the heart talk to each other -- both metaphorically and physically. This fa... posted on Apr 17, 32102 reads

Growing Up the Internet
Internet pioneer and filmmaker Tiffany Shlain thinks of the internet as our global brain. Founder of the Webby Awards and a co-founder of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, she has directed and co-written 28 films, such as "Brain Power: From Neurons to Networks." She is committed to reframing technology as an expression of the best of what humanity is capable, with all the com... posted on Apr 11, 10401 reads

10 Ways to Have A Better Conversation
"When your job hinges on how well you talk to people, you learn a lot about how to have conversations -- and that most of us don't converse very well. Celeste Headlee has worked as a radio host for decades, and she knows the ingredients of a great conversation: Honesty, brevity, clarity and a healthy amount of listening. In this insightful talk, she shares 10 useful rules for having better convers... posted on Apr 18, 105750 reads

Prison Gardens: Food for Body and Soul
"Prison vegetable gardens, where inmates plant and harvest fresh produce to feed the larger prison population, are on the rise in correctional facilities from New York to Oregon. In addition to being a cost-effective food source, the gardens are seen as a way to save money on healthcare for prisoners struggling with diabetes, hypertension, and other ailments. But the gardening itself provides oppo... posted on Apr 20, 11638 reads

Planting Seeds:
This latest music video by the singer/songwriter team of Nimo Patel and Daniel Nahmod and filmmaker Ellie Walton captures the joy, introspection and inspiration in the song, "Planting Seeds." The song was inspired by Daniel Nahmod's original 2006 Water album, which captures the spirit of doing our part (planting the seeds), but then letting go and not holding on to what may come.... posted on Apr 5, 4392 reads

8 Great Writers On Why Reverence Matters
Reverence. It's a word that has tumbled out of use and favor in today's world. And humanity has paid a high price for that loss. Here, eight writers, including Wendell Berry and Mary Oliver, speak up in voices that are lyrical, incisive, and urgent, drawing us back to the luminous heart of what it means to live reverently.... posted on Apr 14, 38243 reads

How One Woman's App is Feeding Thousands
Komal Ahmad was a student at UC Berkeley when she experienced a life-changing moment. She had just returned from summer training for the U.S. Navy when she met a homeless veteran on the sidewalk. He hadn't eaten in three days. Yet, across the street, thousands of pounds of uneaten food was being thrown away by her school. This was unacceptable to Ahmad, so she did something about it. "Those who ha... posted on May 22, 20501 reads