The Dragonfly Incident
"I suppose this could be considered a 'wildlife encounter' story of sorts, though it presents some unusual twists. For one thing, the animal at the heart of this tale is a subarctic insect (and yet has nothing to do with the region's legendary mosquitoes). For another, odd things happen that aren't easily explained by either reason or chance. There are other curious turns, as well...The story begi... posted on Apr 6, 5696 reads

Dandelions
"As new homeowners early in our marriage, I obsessed over making our yard dandelion-free. Every dandelion clock, or white blowball about to burst and blow into the wind, was a guilt-inducing sign that I hadn't caught them when I scoured our yard on my hands and knees days earlier, looking to pop them at the root. What kind of a homemaker would I be if our lawn weren't trimmed and verdant, no bligh... posted on Apr 10, 2577 reads

When Relishing Joy is A Radical Act
"For Persians, one of our most precious ways to summon joy is with poetry. I remember one night, in particular, in my home city of Shiraz, Iran, during the war. While sirens blared and the electricity was shut off, warning of an imminent attack, my family and I (feeling especially brave) snuck to our rooftop to watch the anti-aircraft missiles shoot into the air. To my 7-year-old eyes, the brillia... posted on Apr 18, 26210 reads

The Mongerji Letters
"Since the collapse of one of the last dynasties of the common era and the subsequent end of the era itself, historians have searched for descendants of the Mongerji family, as well as descendants of the scribes who, under their employ, collected samplings of flora and fauna from around the world. The only evidence discovered thus far are the letters that follow. They are from Mr. Mongerji, his wi... posted on Apr 23, 1817 reads

Bokkapuram's Birdman
"He can recognise the gentle hoot of the elusive wood owl and the call of four types of babblers. He also knows exactly what kind of ponds the migratory Woolly-necked storks breed in. B. Siddan had to drop out of school, but his knowledge of avian species in and around his home in the Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu, is the delight of an ornithologist. "There were three boys named Siddan in my village of Bok... posted on May 12, 1215 reads

Staying Loyal to Who You Are and Your Dreams
"Dr. Tererai Trent is an activist, adjunct professor at Drexel University's School of Public Health, and the author of The Awakened Woman: Remembering & Reigniting Our Sacred Dreams. Oprah Winfrey has referred to Dr. Trent as one of her favorite guests. In this episode of Insights at the Edge, Tami Simon speaks with Dr. Trent about the path that took her from a childhood in rural Zimbabwe to becom... posted on May 24, 3081 reads

Soil & Spirit: Cultivation and Kinship in the Web of Life
"In Soil and Spirit, poet, farmer, and educator Scott Chaskey generously reflects on the natural world, his travels visiting growers around the country, and his insight into how we can build healthier communities while tending to the earth." Read an excerpt here. ... posted on May 26, 1740 reads

Six Ways to Help Kids Grow Their Creativity
Brene Brown, bestselling author, researcher, and University of Houston professor, was surrounded by creativity as a child. "I grew up in a pink stucco house in New Orleans where my mom was always a maker. All the curtains in our house were homemade, all the art in our house was from us kids. I had dresses that matched my mom's that matched my dolls. I never thought about creativity as an act separ... posted on May 29, 3254 reads

The Hidden Joy of Waiting in Line
"Americans spend an estimated 37 billion hours waiting in line each year, much to our individual and collective distaste. Few things inspire as much universal frustration and ire as long queues and lengthy wait times -- many of us even struggle to wait for a sluggish web browser to load." Why do we dislike waiting so much -- and what can we do to transform that familiar feeling of frustration? Thi... posted on May 31, 26412 reads

Interbeing : Nico de Transilvania
Interbeing is a project which utilizes music and art to showcase the interconnectedness of everything: people, nature, and the whole ecosystem. Through indigenous songs, traditional instruments and the exquisite sounds of nature, traditions are passed on to younger generations, including the life giving value of forests. Interbeing lays a path for regenerating and recreating some old ways of livin... posted on Jun 2, 1902 reads

Kabul's For Women, By Women, Pop Up Cafe
Savory smells waft out of the cloth-walled pop-up restaurant in Kabul. Banowan-e-Afghan is a dine-in restaurant for women, run by women, a rarity in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. While many restaurants have designated family areas where men can only enter if they're accompanying female relatives, a whole restaurant dedicated to serving and employing women is rare. Many of the women who work here... posted on Jun 8, 1281 reads

The Deep Cultural Work of Chatter
"The horror of the oral, of stories that lack the luster of the literary, stems in part from the link between old wives' tales and gossip, or idle chatter. How could these trifles possibly be dignified with print? But gossip has value precisely because it creates opportunities for talking through the emotional entanglements of our social lives. Its participants jointly construct narratives from th... posted on Jun 13, 1180 reads

Aluna: A Journey to Save the World
"In 1991, in the last edition of the original Beshara Magazine, we published an article by journalist Alan Ereira about an extraordinary people living in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in the north of Colombia. The descendants of a great civilisation which fled to the hills as the Spanish took over their lands, the Kogi had lived for 400 years in isolation, led by a class of priests called the m... posted on Jun 20, 1725 reads

Leave No Child Inside
"As a boy I pulled out dozens -- perhaps hundreds -- of survey stakes in a vain effort to slow the bulldozers that were taking out my woods to make way for a new subdivision. Had I known then what I've since learned from a developer, that I should have simply moved the stakes around to be more effective, I would surely have done that too. So you might imagine my dubiousness when, a few weeks after... posted on Jun 22, 2188 reads

Sarah Peyton: Connecting with the Music & Breath of Life
In a special Awakin Calls workshop held in 2022, longtime Nonviolent Communication trainer, Sarah Peyton explained resonance in the context of her cello. The cello is shaped like a human body, almost the same size, and, "We actually place musical instruments in our brain in the same area that holds people. So our body, our brain thinks of a cello as a person as well." When we play a cello and ther... posted on Jun 26, 1446 reads

Joyas Voladoras
"Consider the hummingbird for a long moment. A hummingbird's heart beats ten times a second. A hummingbird's heart is the size of a pencil eraser. A hummingbird's heart is a lot of the hummingbird. Joyas voladoras, flying jewels, the first white explorers in the Americas called them, and the white men had never seen such creatures, for hummingbirds came into the world only in the Americas, nowhere... posted on Jun 27, 2326 reads

Hermann Hesse on Breaking the Trance of Busyness
"We reflexively blame on the Internet our corrosive compulsion for doing at the cost of being, forgetting that every technology is a symptom and not, or at least not at first, a cause of our desires and pathologies. Our intentions are the basic infrastructure of our lives, out of which all of our inventions and actions arise. Any real relief from our self-inflicted maladies, therefore, must come n... posted on Jul 2, 6331 reads

The Cataclysm Sentence
"One day in 1961, the famous physicist Richard Feynman stepped in front of a Caltech lecture hall and posed this question to a group of undergraduate students: If, in some cataclysm, all of scientific knowledge were to be destroyed, and only one sentence was passed on to the next generation of creatures, what statement would contain the most information in the fewest words? Now, Feynman had an ans... posted on Jul 4, 3429 reads

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain
"In fact, human beings do not see very well. The brain itself makes assumptions about what it is seeing, and can actually can change perceptions to fit its assumptions. You may be familiar with the so-called constancies, perceptual constancy, form constancy, and concept constancy. This means that the brain, which is always looking for easy ways to do things, makes quick assumptions about perceptio... posted on Jul 9, 2717 reads

A Broad Margin
"To meander is a natural form of movement, uncontrived, unhurried. Rivers and roving butterflies are adept at meandering. And we were too, once upon a time before we developed a preference for traveling in straight lines, perhaps because of Euclid, who told us a straight line is the shortest distance between two points (for the record he was not entirely right about this.) Regardless of length, a ... posted on Jul 24, 4436 reads

Ode to an Ugly Cat
"Idly is not a beautiful cat. There is something about the way he looks at you that will set you on edge and it will take you a long time to get over this feeling. The edges of his ears are jagged, a little bit frayed. Old cat ears. He has scratches on his nose. He always has something sticking to his whiskers and there is nothing you can do about that. He would rather have cat litter stuck to his... posted on Jul 19, 5576 reads

The Constant Gardener
The garden is a space defined not by its physicality but by the emotions it evokes and the connections it provokes. And the act of gardening can change the way we relate to the world around us for the better, giving us perspective and teaching us lessons about life. Our souls are gardens. Our hearts are flowers. They need to be watered, tended, fertilized and loved. Happy gardening!... posted on Jul 28, 2327 reads

Arwen Donohue: Care is a Creative Act
"I had sort of a grandiose idea that I was writing a big hybrid book--part oral history illuminated by portraiture, part graphic memoir, and part history of the peculiar role that the idea of agrarianism has played in American life. The drawings of daily life on the farm became a small part of this rangy, years-long interdisciplinary process. After I finished the year of drawing 'Landings,' I kept... posted on Aug 8, 1394 reads

How to Become a 100 Percenter
The term 100 percenter is inspired by Charly and Lisa Kleissner, tech entrepreneurs who wanted to invest their money in a meaningful way, and inspire others to do the same. That's why they started the 100 percent impact network, which brings together likeminded people who invest all of their assets into social and environmental causes. Now, these are some serious investors, but being 100 percent i... posted on Aug 21, 3101 reads

Conspiracy of Goodness
Many times throughout history there have been silent movements of goodness that have made a significant impact on humanity. Perhaps we are on the verge of the greatest one yet, and the only thing stopping it is what's under your fingers! Dr. Lynda Ulrich, a dentist turned social innovator, is the founder of Ever Widening Circles (EWC), a positive media company on a mission to prove that in spite o... posted on Sep 4, 2357 reads

Shrine
Tracey Schmidt performs her poem Shrine, an evocative poem about love, about self, and about fitting into the world. Her whole being becomes a shrine through which divisions between herself and the rest of the world recede and "then the love fits perfectly," and her life shines brilliantly.... posted on Sep 8, 1900 reads

An Antidote to the Age of Anxiety
In his 1951 book, "The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety," Alan Watts writes, "There is a contradiction in wanting to be perfectly secure in a universe whose very nature is momentariness and fluidity. But the contradiction lies a little deeper than the mere conflict between the desire for security and the fact of change. If I want to be secure, that is, protected from the flux ... posted on Sep 19, 4273 reads

Hummingbirds & the Ecstatic Moment
"Birds have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember, and hummingbirds have held a special place in my heart for the simple reason that they, early on, became personal to me. On some level, you could say I became a writer because of hummingbirds, and they have appeared in my fiction since I was very young. How to make sense of life, especially during childhood? Sometimes, what moves yo... posted on Sep 20, 915 reads

3 Steps to Build Peace & Create Change
As the child of Holocaust survivors and a World War II refugee herself, peace builder Georgette Bennett was stunned by the human toll and tragedy of the Syrian civil war. She got to work, bringing together historical enemies to build an aid pipeline from Israel to Syria -- a feat many considered impossible, but she and her organization -- the Multi-faith Alliance for Syrian refugees -- has since h... posted on Sep 23, 1588 reads

Coming to Our (Animal) Senses
"The term 'resource' always befuddles me. If we would simply drop the prefix, 're,' whenever we use the term, it would become apparent that we're almost always talking about 'sources', like springs bubbling up from the unseen depths. But when we put that little prefix in front of the word, and speak of things as 'resources', we transform the enigmatic presence of things into a reserve, a stock of ... posted on Oct 9, 1149 reads

The Blessing of Aging
This delightful video features several women and men who are facing the realities of aging with humor and vitality. They talk about the advantages that aging has brought to their lives, including the loss of inhibitions, learning new things, and focusing on what they enjoy. They are full of life, curiosity and passion. As one gentleman states, "Getting old is out. Getting older is better."... posted on Oct 13, 4157 reads

All Real Living is Meeting
Cornelius Pieztner, currently a high-impact financial professional, spent the first 45 years of his life at Camphill - a network of intentional communities co-founded by his father Carlos Pietzner. The communities were designed for children and youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Through his interactions and work with teenagers with pronounced developmental disabilities, Cornel... posted on Oct 25, 1782 reads

Kabir Helminksi: Rumi & the Mysterion
"Kabir Helminski is co-director, with his wife, Camille Helminski, of the Threshold Society, a nonprofit organization dedicated to sharing the knowledge and practice of Sufism. He is the author of Living Presence and the translator of four volumes of Rumis poetry, including Love Is a Stranger and Rumi: Daylight. His new book which we discuss on the podcast is The Mysterion: Rumi and the Secret of ... posted on Oct 29, 2108 reads

Kintsugi: The Golden Joinery of Love
Sue Cochrane was a family court judge who sought to bring more love into the practice of law. The forces she battled were not confined to the court room -- among them, poverty, violence, addiction, abuse, a terminal diagnosis and more. In this powerful piece, she explores kintsugi -- a stunning Japanese art form in which broken pottery is repaired by filling the cracks with gold. Kingtsugi, poems,... posted on Oct 31, 54829 reads

Carol Sanford: Indirect Work
Building on over four decades of her research and experience, author Carol Sanford's latest book, "Indirect Work," explores how a deep understanding of living systems can translate into "a practical human technology for daily life at home and work. Through foundational wisdom and exercises for self-discovery, this guide will illuminate your understanding of the unlimited power of regenerative chan... posted on Nov 1, 1623 reads

Cooking Up Connection
"Neighborly get-togethers have seen a steady drop since 1940. But rates of socializing outside the home have risen. We're now more likely to meet friends at a softball game or a bar than to invite them over for dinner or a barbecue. The "why" behind these trends is less clear, but the reality is stark: we are living in a cultural moment where there is a growing bifurcation between our private home... posted on Nov 8, 3185 reads

Invisible Landscapes
"Until quite recently, if doctors wanted to study human tissue from a living person, they had to remove it first. Then they'd essentially mummify it: drying, freezing, slicing, and fixing it on a slide so they could peer at its shriveled dead form under a microscope to ascertain what was happening at a cellular level. As a result, scientists and doctors were taught in medical school that collagen ... posted on Nov 18, 3494 reads

Kinship is a Verb
"In thinking about kinship, I think its important to begin with, What are the boundaries of our kin? We can go way internal and microscopic, down to the nerves that actually inform our brain more than our brain informs our bodies, right down to the microbes, not only managing our health but informing our way of being and interacting with the world. Then [we can go] all the way out, right to our ow... posted on Nov 24, 1344 reads

How Language Shapes the Way We Think
There are about 7,000 languages spoken around the world -- and they all have different sounds, vocabularies and structures. But do they shape the way we think? Cognitive scientist Lera Boroditsky shares examples of language -- from an Aboriginal community in Australia that uses cardinal directions instead of left and right to the multiple words for blue in Russian -- that suggest the answer is a r... posted on Dec 5, 2408 reads

Light & Danger Through the Crack in the Door
"Multiplicity of viewpoints, described, prayed over, celebrated, sung, danced, and debated by practitioners of many spiritual practices drove the five-day convening of the Parliament of the World's Religions, held August 14-18 at Chicagos McCormick Place Lakeside Center. There are those who think of religion as a lofty preoccupation, divorced from the sorrows and suffering of the real world. But f... posted on Dec 9, 1234 reads

Hundreds of Strangers Send Gifts to Make Teens' Wishes Come True
"Excuse me while I break down," Cheri Guy's TikTok video began. Wiping away tears, the Las Vegas high school teacher shared a heart-tugging "Wishmas" list to which 950 students contributed wishes for simple items, such as a bag of chips "so I won't feel hungry," a gift card to help a parent with groceries, "slippers to protect me from the cold," and a physics book for an aspiring astrophysicist. M... posted on Dec 13, 1451 reads

It Turns Out We Were Born To Groove
Newborns are naturally jamming to their own beat, according to a groundbreaking research first conducted in 2009, which revealed that newborns can discern a beat in music. This musicality, far from being merely cultural, finds its roots deep within our biology and evolutionary history. However, the initial results sparked some skepticism, prompting the research group to revisit the study in 2015. ... posted on Jan 5, 1834 reads

3 Steps to a Purposeful Year
The beginning of the year often marks the possibility of fresh beginnings. We make resolutions to help things to change for the better. It may sound something like: "I don't love my job or where I live, so I'm going to make some changes." "As a coach, I'm happy when my people are ready for change," writes author Christine Carter. "But the best first move usually isn't an outer change to our circum... posted on Jan 8, 3542 reads

How Emotional Intelligence Levels Up Leadership
"We all know that leadership isn't just about meeting goals or hitting targets. When we picture a good leader, we think of someone who is able to inspire, motivate, guide, support, and empathize ... They're able to connect with people on a deeper level. This requires emotional intelligence," describes health writer Sanjana Gupta. According to author and leadership coach Jerry Colona, emotional int... posted on Jan 29, 2636 reads

Glacial Longings
"On the morning of our arrival, I run up to the bridge to watch Thwaites come into view. Out in the gathering light its gray margin wobbles in the gloaming. No one knows quite what to say. The words I conjurecirque, serac, cleft, torque, ski slope, rampartall slide off the surface of the ice, plopping one after the other into the bay right in front of Thwaites; a bay that had up until just a few w... posted on Feb 5, 1392 reads

An Offering of Remembrance
The world today is rapidly changing; yet, there is also a shifting landscape within each of us. Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee offers a stirring inquiry into the space between our relationship with the Earth and within ourselves. He begins, "The stories are within the words and the images, but they are also at the margins, in what is not said ... the real story that is unfolding beneath the surface is the c... posted on Feb 7, 1997 reads

Why 1,200 Widows Will Be Surprised With Flowers Today
After the birth of her fourth child, Ashley Manning started a flower business as a respite from the whirlwind of family life. On Valentine's Day in 2020, she gifted a bouquet to her son's preschool teacher, who was widowed. Months later, at the end of the school year, that teacher told her, "I just want you to know how much that meant to me, that you thought of me on that day." Inspired, for the h... posted on Feb 14, 1436 reads

Seeds of Reciprocity
How might we rekindle awe and reciprocity by remembering ourselves as extensions of the changing earth? In an era enveloped by rapid change and compounding emergencies, four vibrant individuals -- a filmmaker, author-singer, environmental justice activist, and Sufi teacher unfold a compelling conversation centering narratives of kinship amid the uncertainty of our systems today. Each discusses the... posted on Mar 5, 1944 reads

Small Town Hotel Becomes Safe Haven in an Expensive World
In Little Current, Ontario, Canada, the owners of a local hotel have transformed their lodgings into affordable apartments for those struggling to make ends meet. Denise, "D" as she's lovingly called, was an employee of the Anchor Inn for over 15 years when she and her partner purchased the property in 2017. As housing and inflation spiked costs of living, Denise's hotel vision took a heartfelt tu... posted on Feb 20, 2056 reads

Lost? Here's 4 Steps to Finding Your Path
There are moments in life when we lose our sense of direction. Whether you're faced with major life-changes, a sense of dissatisfaction, or simply feel the need for some self-reflection, UC Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center magazine outlines four research-backed steps to finding your path, with a focus on defining your values, identifying domains in life that matter the most to you, translati... posted on Feb 27, 3214 reads