A Sister's Deathless Legacy of Love
"After living through an experimental cancer treatment my sister Barb was left unable to work. When she was offered the opportunity to do a mission trip in India if she could come up with $3,000 - she was left thinking there was no way she could go. No way to raise the funds. She asked me to brainstorm with her as to how she could raise money. "The only thing I can do is hug," she told me - and th... posted on Jul 18, 16368 reads

Pilgrims for Peace: One Couple's Incredible Journey
"In the life of each and every one of us, there is a defining moment, one after which we know that our lives will never be the same. For me, 9/11 was that moment." Mony Dojeiji's defining moment eventually led her to an ancient pilgrimage route in Spain, where a chance encounter with an artist would change both of their lives forever. Together they would end up walking a pilgrimage for peace in J... posted on Jul 22, 12364 reads

Life Through A Camera Lens
"'I couldn't believe how beautiful the ocean was,' he commented. 'I've never seen an ocean before, and then to get to see palm trees in person, and to even touch them. It was just amazing.' He began thumbing through a series of photographs on his phone, each displaying an image of a palm tree." Though she'd seen many palm trees before, the writer describing this encounter realized in that moment t... posted on Aug 1, 14449 reads

Meeting Michael: A Kindness Story
"I was sitting at my desk today, looking out the window. I saw an old homeless man crossing the street, carrying a suitcase. I remembered the many times I had looked on from afar, feeling sorry for the homeless but doing nothing... Sometimes we think about compassion but we push it into the deep corners of our heart because we're too busy with life, too shy, or too afraid of strangers. But all it ... posted on Jul 27, 7458 reads

9-yr-old Helps Disabled Brother Finish Triathlons
Over the weekend, brothers Cayden and Connor Long joined hundreds of other children as they competed in the first annual New England Kids Triathlon in Cambridge. The boys did not win the event -- they didn't even come close. But that didn't stop them from winning hearts across the Internet. The Long brothers are not your typical triathletes. Six-year-old Cayden has cerebral palsy and can neither w... posted on Jul 29, 25296 reads

Giving Wings to Little Prisoners
2012 CNN Hero Pushpa Basnet found her calling when she was still a student in social work in Nepal. While visiting a women's prison as an assignment for one of her classes, she felt a tug on her shawl and a little girl smiled at her from behind bars -- a child living with her mother in prison. That image haunted Pushpa until she graduated, and she started a daycare in the morning for children aged... posted on Jul 30, 3331 reads

A Brief History of Timekeeping
"For millennia, humans have sought to make sense of time, to visualize it, to ride its arrow, to hack it, to understand biological connection to it. 'Time is the very foundation of conscious experience,' writes Dan Falk in 'In Search of Time: The History, Physics, and Philosophy of Time.' And yet that awareness has a long history of friction -- to mark and measure the passage of time has proven re... posted on Aug 6, 10677 reads

Dakota 38: One Filmmaker's Ride of a Lifetime
"I remember Silas telling us about meeting a Native American elder who talked about a dream he'd had, an important dream, one that he'd tried to ignore. But finally he understood that the dream had to be re-enacted. There would be a ride of Native Americans on horseback, over 300 miles across the Dakotas in the dead of winter, a healing ride to the place where 38 Native Americans had been hung dur... posted on Aug 9, 4508 reads

How to Be Happy: The Fine Print
Most of us want to be happy and stay that way, and research from positive psychology has shown that making a habit of certain day-to-day activities -- like expressing gratitude, exercising, or performing acts of kindness -- can help us get there. But few researchers have considered how to identify an activity that's best suited to your particular personality and lifestyle. Sonja Lyubomirsky, a pro... posted on Aug 13, 24976 reads

The Man Who Planted A Forest
The year was 1979 in Assam, India. Floods had washed a great number of snakes onto a barren sandbar. When Jadav "Molai" Payeng -- then only 16 -- found them, they had all died. "The snakes died in the heat, without any tree cover. I sat down and wept over their lifeless forms." Then he dried his tears and asked forest officials if they could plant trees in that area. When they told him nothing wou... posted on Aug 16, 79962 reads

Global Warming: A Case for Inner Change
"Alarming data and warnings about climate change have been with us for twenty years. The issue has morphed into something like a low-level toothache. [...] If human nature is to evolve, a new set of assumptions would look something like the following: Human life isn't set apart from life on earth. We must live in balance with Nature. Consumerism isn't unlimited and doesn't lead to happiness. Toxic... posted on Aug 17, 18193 reads

Two Quick Judo-Joy-Chops
"I was on my way to the post office. I hadn't found a parking place on my first pass up the street and was now making a left turn into a small parking lot in order to loop back towards the post office. It's a tight space and there's a mail box set up right inside the lot so people can pull in, roll down their window and reach out to stick a letter into the box without getting out of their cars." W... posted on Aug 20, 4283 reads

It's More Important to Be Kind Than Clever
"Brandon Cook, from Wilton, New Hampshire, was visiting his grandmother in the hospital. Terribly ill with cancer, she complained to her grandson that she desperately wanted a bowl of soup, and that the hospital's soup was inedible (she used saltier language). If only she could get a bowl of her favorite clam chowder from Panera Bread! Trouble was, Panera only sells clam chowder on Friday. So Bran... posted on Aug 31, 128076 reads

10 Life-Changing Perspectives On Anger
We all have had our moments of impatience, rage and frustration...but how do these moments affect our lives? Get curious about anger, and you just might discover an untapped well of vital energy that improves your life circumstances and wakes you up to the whole of life. This article offers 10 powerful perspectives on anger.... posted on Sep 10, 0 reads

The Art of Losing: Poems of Grief and Healing
After the sudden death of his father, the poet Kevin Young looked for a collection of poems that might speak to his sense of loss. To his surprise, he couldn't find such a collection, so he went to work compiling one. "The Art of Losing: Poems of Grief and Healing". Young speaking on NPR shares, "[Poetry]is able to capture a moment, a feeling, perhaps a fleeting feeling, and even make .... music ... posted on Sep 1, 11700 reads

Never Too Late: A 71 Year Old's Inspiring Journey
"If there ever was an anti-aging pill, I would call it exercise," says Ernestine Shepherd. A remarkable woman who, at age 71 started competitive bodybuilding. This BBC video shares more about her inspiring journey and her dedication to role modeling the power of exercise and a healthy diet. Ernestine's luminous smile and spirit illustrates her deep-held conviction that,"Age is nothing but a number... posted on Sep 2, 6846 reads

Transforming Bullies -- with Babies
"Teacher Raya patrols a group of giggly kindergarten students, looking each so deeply in the eye that many squirm and bashfully reach for her toes. Her father carries her in his arms. Raya is not quite five months old. She's teaching them about being kind and how to talk about their feelings so that later, they don't terrorize each other. Teacher Raya, as they call her, is a "volunteer" with Roots... posted on Nov 10, 7216 reads

The Point of Being Alive
"A few weeks ago, I found myself in one of my favorite cities: Seattle, Washington. Within minutes of my arrival to Pike Place Market, I felt an overwhelming sensation that I was meant to be in that spot, at that moment, with my two children. As we meandered around the colorful and lively market, I witnessed six connections...These moments, later comprised one remarkable collection that illuminate... posted on Oct 8, 67991 reads

The Ripple of One Small Act
When Hilde Back sponsored a young, rural Kenyan student, she thought nothing of it. She certainly never expected to hear from him, but years later she did. Now a Harvard graduate and a Human Rights Lawyer for the United Nations, Chris Mburu decided to find the stranger that changed his life. Inspired by her generosity, he started a scholarship program of his own and named it for his former benefac... posted on Sep 21, 4417 reads

Living with Just Enough
"By now we are all extremely familiar with the litany of challenges we face as a global species... We know there will be no easy fixes, no panaceas, but nevertheless as we try to set priorities and search for the most promising ways to approach these problems, many of us find ourselves looking to different cultures and to earlier eras for inspiration. In this regard, the Edo period of Japan has a ... posted on Sep 19, 25910 reads

Reporting Poverty: Interview with Katherine Boo
While covering poverty and social welfare for the Washington Post in 1993, Katherine Boo was commissioned to write a magazine profile of the new vice president. For most reporters, such an assignment would signal entry into the big leagues. Social issues are regarded as a beat journalists cover until they are deemed important enough to interview politicians, bureaucrats, people of power. "In journ... posted on Sep 29, 4875 reads

Love Leads Into Mystery: Raising A Child With Asperger's
"Daniel teaches me that all rules are arbitrary, answers are illusory, future visions are incomplete. He teaches me about the psychic wounds I carry into my parenting, and my only choice is to heal myself. He teaches me to be more patient, more accepting, more tolerant not just of him but of other kids. I see a nine year old hyper boy out in public these days, and I don't get irritated with him; i... posted on Oct 10, 10110 reads

Families Held Together By Love ... & Skype
We live in a world in which some of the people we are closest to are often not near us at all. When we document our day-to-day existence in photographs and Instagrams, these people are absent. Their presence in our lives is missing from our digital memories. Photographer John Clang's series Being Together seeks to correct this. Using Skype and projectors, he captures families visually as they are... posted on Sep 20, 4626 reads

Is Time Really Money?
"Time is money in the West. Workers are paid by the hour, lawyers charge by the minute, and advertising is sold by the second ($117,000 per second at this year's Super Bowl). Think about this: The civilized mind has reduced time, the most obscure and amorphous of all intangibles, to the most objective of all quantities -- money. With time and things on the same value scale, I can tell you how many... posted on Nov 9, 24474 reads

Detroit's Good Food Cure
"What happens when the Motor City transforms itself into the capital of grow-your-own food? There are more than 1,200 community gardens in Detroit--more per square mile and more per capita than in any other American city. The number of community gardens is just a fraction of the number of kitchen gardens that families grow in yards and side lots. Locals are learning more about nutrition and feelin... posted on Oct 25, 10678 reads

A Weaver's Reflections
Pam Hiller's weaving teacher, Aziz, taught her not to fix mistakes, but to stop and notice -- and then work with them. "It wasn't just paying attention with the mind; it was also listening with the body," says Hiller. "When someone is learning to weave they literally tie the strings in knots. There's a reason I think that we refer to ourselves as getting knotted up in our emotions because that's t... posted on Oct 13, 3623 reads

The Action of Light
"The working class daughter of a Jewish mother and Sicilian father, Joan Di Stefano was working to help with the bills at fourteen. A few years later she was "slinging drinks" to pay tuition for her classes at the San Francisco Art Institute. At seventeen, while working at Macy's in downtown SF, on her lunch-breaks she often visited a bookstore around the corner. That's where she picked up a copy... posted on Nov 14, 5409 reads

Rick Van Beek's 12-Year-Old Inspiration
Rick Van Beek used to smoke two packs of cigarettes and chew a tin of tobacco a day, and the only exercise he got was playing in a Monday night softball league. But two years ago, Van Beek quit smoking, lost weight, whipped himself into shape and started running. It turned out that all Van Beek needed was a little inspiration to get off the couch."If you want to be a runner, you have to have somet... posted on Oct 16, 12684 reads

Throw Your Life a Curve
"According to Juan Carlos Mendez-Garcia, one of the best models for making sense of a non-linear world is the S-curve, the model we have used to understand the diffusion of disruptive innovations, and which he and I speculate can be used to understand personal disruption -- the necessary pivots in our own career paths. [...] Our hypothesis is that those who can successfully navigate, even harness,... posted on Oct 11, 20392 reads

The Man Who Left Hollywood For His True Calling
In a former life Scott Neeson was a high-powered Hollywood exec responsible for the global success of box-office hits like Titanic and Braveheart. But eight years ago, after a poignant experience at a Cambodian garbage dump, he quit his job, sold his mansion and traded in all the trappings of success to dedicate his life to underserved children in one of the poorest countries of the world. Today ... posted on Oct 20, 67328 reads

The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
Watch this fascinating talk visually unfold before you through witty and beautiful illustration. Dan Pink makes the case that there are hidden truths behind what really motivates us. Namely that it's not the age-old motivators of money and power that drives us, but our desire for autonomy, mastery, and purpose.... posted on Nov 2, 8047 reads

Remembering What We Have Forgotten
Discovering the writings of Peter Kingsley (In the Dark Places of Wisdom, Reality and now A Story Waiting to Pierce You) reminded me of what a mystery it is to be alive. One is always forgetting this, especially in this era of science's stupendous discoveries and the astonishing advance of techonology. It's as if we have the power to figure everything out. Does this confidence in our knowledge sta... posted on Nov 23, 4403 reads

The Danger of a Single Story
Growing up in Nigeria, author Chimamanda Adichie only read stories about blue-eyed British children, playing in the snow and eating apples. She loved these stories, but she could not connect to these stories. Growing up in an English-speaking former colony, Adichie nevertheless embraces Nigerian history and tradition to write critically acclaimed diasporan literature. Watch her discuss her own you... posted on Nov 21, 3386 reads

The Learning Curve of Gratitude
"Eight weeks ago, I was released from the hospital after suffering a pulmonary embolism. I had just finished a tour and a week after returning home, severe chest pain and terrible breathlessness landed me in the ER. A scan revealed blood clots in my lungs. Everyone told me how lucky I was. A pulmonary embolism can take your life in an instant. I was familiar enough with the medical term, but not f... posted on Nov 26, 12277 reads

Short On Time? Try Something Awe-Inspiring
"Always plugged in and constantly juggling tasks at work and at home, many of us feel like there aren't enough hours in the day to do all the things we need to do. But wouldn't it be awesome to feel like you had more time? In fact, a new study suggests that experiencing awe -- which psychologists define as the feeling we get when we come across something so strikingly vast in number, scope, or com... posted on Dec 3, 14482 reads

You Are Not Your Body
We often define ourselves by things that are "outside" us: relationships, work, family - even our own bodies. But what would it mean to have your life dramatically altered and your body irrevocably damaged? Who would you be then? In this TEDx talk, walking paraplegic Janine Shepherd, explores the impact of loss on the human psyche and the universal quest to find meaning and fulfillment. It is only... posted on Nov 28, 6070 reads

Help for Caregiving Kids
"At 13 years old, Nickolaus Dent is his mother's primary caregiver. He's responsible for the grocery shopping and cooking. He cleans the house. He does all the laundry. His mother, Janine Helms, has been battling HIV for as long as Nickolaus can recall, and her health has deteriorated in the last couple of years. Nickolaus makes sure she takes her medication. He often helps her get dressed, and at... posted on Dec 1, 4251 reads

Tammy Strobel's Tiny Home
"In the beginning of September, Tammy Strobel and Logan Smith moved from Portland, Oregon, to a ranch in northern California. But unlike many homeowners who move, the couple did not have to put their current home on the market or pack up their belongings into moving trucks. Instead, they simply attached their 128-square-foot home (which is on wheels) to the back of a Ford F350, and drove 400 miles... posted on Mar 5, 10658 reads

What I've Learned From the Children in My Life
In 1989, eighteen-year-old Shaheen Mistry arrived in Mumbai for a visit from the United States. After a poignant encounter with the city's street children she called her parents in the US and announced her decision to stay in India for good. Shaheen went on to found the inspiring non-profit Akanksha, dedicated to educating and empowering children from underprivileged backgrounds. Today she heads T... posted on Dec 16, 21806 reads

The Wisdom of Babies
"For years I worked with families who were very abusive to their children. Over time, I came to realize that all of the suffering that the children collected -- whether it was domestic violence or child abuse or neglect -- was a result of the absence of empathy in the parent. I saw that if you haven't experienced love, it's very difficult to know how to love. So what can we do to break this cycle ... posted on Jan 25, 0 reads

Could Boredom Be Curable?
"Philosophers and scientists alike have found ways to describe boredom as an experience, from the ochlos of ancient Greeks to the unresolved conflicts of modern psychodynamic theory. But when it comes to what actually triggers boredom, an answer has remained elusive. Boredom can occur in a perplexingly broad range of situations and seems to involve both our external environment and our inner resou... posted on Mar 8, 7037 reads

More Than Human: Striking Animal Portraits
""Erasing the awe-inspiring variety of sentient life impoverishes all our lives," historian Joanna Bourke wrote in her poignant meditation on what it means to be human. And yet our relationship with animals and our understanding of their inner lives remain inadequate at best. In 2010, photographer Tim Flach gave us his extraordinary dog portraits. This year, he's back with More Than Human -- a col... posted on Dec 18, 63196 reads

The Power of Whimsy
Public spaces serve multiple functions for society and, more and more, they are being utilized in ever-creative ways. In many of these cases, whimsy seems to be at the heart of the matter, even if it is not the main driver. For instance, in a bid to improve public health by encouraging more people to use the stairs instead of the escalator, The Fun Theory (a Volkswagen initiative) transformed a se... posted on Jan 9, 21876 reads

Second Chances on Rikers Island
"This place is about transformation. The students learn that if you can transform this environment, you can transform your life, yourself. We try to use the program at the gardens to help people build self-esteem," says James Jiler, who runs the GreenHouse program at Rikers Island in New York. Though a prison that holds nearly 16,000 short-term detainees is an unlikely site for a garden, the men a... posted on Jan 23, 11934 reads

Solar Sisters Spreading Light in Africa
"In Uganda, some 90% of the population lives without access to electricity, according to World Bank figures. Enter Solar Sister -- a group aiming to eradicate energy poverty while creating economic opportunities for women. Using an Avon-style women's distribution system, Solar Sister trains, recruits and supports female entrepreneurs in East Africa to sell affordable solar lighting and other green... posted on Dec 22, 4579 reads

6 Ways to Keep Your New Years Resolutions
It's New Years -- time to reflect on your aspirations and set meaningful goals to improve your health and happiness. Which sounds great, right? But how many of us actually keep our New Year's resolutions past January? Not many, according to a study by author and psychologist Richard Wiseman. His research found that 52% of resolution-makers were confident that they'd achieve their goals, yet only 1... posted on Jan 1, 12105 reads

Top 10 Kindness Stories of 2012!
Ever year we are amazed by everyday stories of compassion, warmth, and love that fill our world with with inspiration and hope. Collected here are 10 uplifting stories from 2012 about the kindness of ordinary people of all ages and from all walks of life.... posted on Jan 3, 6985 reads

The World Needs More Love Letters
Finding a letter of encouragement in the mail or tucked unexpectedly in the unlikeliest of places is sometimes all we need when in doubt or feeling down on our luck. And imagine receiving this note anonymously, as if some magical force out there knew just what you needed to hear and wanted you to know that you haven't been forgotten. In the fall of 2010, in the midst of her own depression and lon... posted on Jan 11, 26568 reads

Journeys for Good
"A little more than three years ago, Steve and Joanie Wynn were looking to get out of a rut. Their video production company, Bayside Entertainment, was in a slump along with the rest of the economy. So when Joanie Wynn stumbled upon Roadmonkey Adventure Philanthropy, a fledgling business started by a former New York Times war correspondent, she thought, here's a chance to do something different --... posted on Feb 3, 5588 reads

Instant Grants In The Park
A group of calling itself the Federation of Students and Nominally Employed or Unemployed Artists spent four hours giving away "instant grants" in a park in New York City. Photographers, knitters for the homeless and artists of all types lined up for small grants. The funds were raised or donated by the federation and the exercise went deeper than just dollars for some. As one recipient noted: "It... posted on Jan 17, 3076 reads