It's Never Too Late to Grow a Garden
Some people in public service make changes and start organizations on a large scale, affecting many lives. All of this is good, but so is change made on a smaller scale. Mary Ellen Graham's life is testament to this. She is the founder and first executive director of My Place Germantown - a community-based permanent housing residence for homeless men in the City of Philadelphia. It is a small scal... posted on Feb 12, 12253 reads

The Happiness Multiplier Effect
Happiness is something we all strive for, yet can be difficult to define. Dictionary.com defines happiness as "good fortune, pleasure, contentment, or joy." And in fact many people associate having more money with being happier. However, studies released in 2008 and 2010 show that there is a threshold for which money can bring happiness. Beyond being pulled out of poverty to a comfortable income... posted on Aug 20, 11913 reads

Remarkable Beings
Where would you turn to learn about familial love, cooperative community and walking through life with peace and gentleness? Expand your horizons and understanding in this essay on what the desert elephants of northern Namibia reveal about belonging on a cosmic scale. Eleanor O'Hanlon shares what she has learned from these remarkable beings in an article for Parabola magazine.
... posted on Mar 25, 16891 reads

Books on How to Lead a Meaningful Life
Looking to curl up with a good read? Check out this list of 2017's best books on how to stay resilient and live a meaningful life. Covering topics that range from how to raise responsible, mature, and empathic children in an increasingly digital age, to why compassion matters in the workplace, this list offers something for everyone. Thought-provoking, engaging, and insightful, your next great rea... posted on Nov 27, 15203 reads

For 11 Years She Taught 250 Kids For Free
Getting access to education for children in rural communities is a problem faced by countries across the world. In India, there is a program launched by the government in 1975 focused on bringing healthcare, education, and nutrition to rural communities through an anganwadi, or 'courtyard shelter.' Anganwadis are vital to these populations, pulling children young enough to attend preschool from he... posted on Dec 10, 6412 reads

Literature's Legacy of Honorable Failure
Somewhere between a critic's necessary superficiality and a writer's natural dishonesty, the truth of how we judge literary success or failure is lost. It is very hard to get writers to speak frankly about their own work, particularly in a literary market where they are required to be not only writers, but also hucksters selling product. What makes a good writer? Is writing an expression of self, ... posted on Mar 14, 12354 reads

No Better Place to Meet Yourself
Moussa Ag Assarid, an avid and gifted storyteller, was born in the Sahara desert in a nomadic camp of Touaregs in the north of Mali, where for generations his family has lived the simple desert life of herding "camels, goats, sheep, cows and donkeys in a kingdom of infinite and of silence." Describing the desert as the perfect "place to meet yourself," Assarid reminisces that there, "every little... posted on Mar 22, 11777 reads

Spirit of the Earth: Indian Voices on Nature
It is indigenous communities who often bear the biggest brunt of environmental crisis -- and who continue to put their bodies on the frontline to protect the Earth, and all of us. Samuel Bendeck Sotillos reminds us that as things are getting worse, they are being uncovered. This is where our hope lies. Amidst the death throes of a dysfunctional paradigm on its way out, it is the First Peoples' tim... posted on Mar 12, 11080 reads

Photographing the Beauty of Life in the Shadow of War
While violence might be the only thing depicted in times of trouble or war, its not the whole picture. Thats what photographer Ami Vitale learned in places like Kosovo and Gaza. At the age of 26, Vitale quit her office job in Manhattan to go abroad and make a difference. There, she got a job as a photographer for a business journal when war broke out nearby, instantly altering her course and putti... posted on Feb 15, 2861 reads

The Dumpster
One day, Meredith Sabini found a large dumpster in front of her neighbor's house, packed with all her treasures and belongings. The widow had passed on and her family members quickly loaded her possessions and left the dumpster behind. Ms. Sabini, founder of The Dream Institute of Northern California in Berkeley whose mission is to restore the dream as a cultural resource, muses: "It is common the... posted on Apr 1, 3889 reads

Three Lessons of Revolutionary Love in a Time of Rage
"Revolutionary love is the choice to enter into labor for others who do not look like us, for our opponents who hurt us and for ourselves. In this era of enormous rage, when the fires are burning all around us,...revolutionary love is the call of our times." In this TEDWomen 2017 talk, Valarie Kaur gives us the antidote to rising nationalism, polarization and hate. In her journey from the birthing... posted on Mar 31, 4568 reads

The Sacred Ordinary in Healthcare
Sacred acts. This is how Dr. Venu Julapalli would describe the seemingly mundane, at times unglamorous, services performed by a team of caregivers looking after his mother who, after the sudden rupture of an aneurysm in her brain, was largely unable to care for herself. These caregivers saw the human behind the hospital gown, and treated their patient with the tenderness and compassion a loving fa... posted on Mar 20, 18984 reads

From Mindfulness to Heartfulness
"Heartfulness seeks to overcome limitations to the kind of mindfulness that is used for the pursuit of profit and pleasure and doesnt challenge materialistic beliefs, values, or practices. Mindfulness can enable other virtues, but if we remain on the purely cognitive level, or stay narrowly focused on stress reduction, we are missing its true power. While the science focus is extremely convincing... posted on Mar 8, 14112 reads

Betsy Damon: Living Water
"Water is Betsy Damon's passion, living water -- water, as the Chinese say, that has gone up and down the mountain ten thousand times. After many years of studying water her question became, "How can we teach people how nature takes care of water?" Fast forward a few years and she's in China, an unattached visitor. But she's talking with everyone she meets about water. And where this story leads, ... posted on Mar 23, 3926 reads

The renowned poet David Whyte has learned to walk on the borders
"One of the dynamics I'm working with at the moment is the art of asking beautiful questions, and I think you can ask beautiful questions of yourself as well as of life and of circumstances. I have this under the heading, "Solace". You find solace, which is not only comfort but also a place in the greater scheme of things, when you ask beautiful questions in quite often un-beautiful circumstances.... posted on May 23, 22436 reads

9 Scientists Share Their Favorite Happiness Practices
Where do you seek happiness? In your relationships? Your work? Your hobbies? This highly sought after feeling can be elusive and hard to hold on to. Once we do obtain it, the good feelings it brings are often fleeting and we begin our quest all over again. What if you could bring happiness into your life in more lasting ways? In this article, 9 scientists share their favorite practices for increas... posted on Aug 8, 23818 reads

Creating a Compassionate Economy
Clair Brown is a professor of economics and director of the Center for Work, Technology, and Society at the University of California, Berkeley. Her recent book, Buddhist Economics: An Enlightened Approach to the Dismal Science, draws upon simple Buddhist ideas to argue for an economic system based on environmental stewardship, shared prosperity, and care for the human spirit.... posted on Jun 22, 9244 reads

How to Think: A Survival Guide for a World at Odds
"Last fall Alan Jacobs published a slim book with a bold title: How to Think: A Survival Guide for a World at Odds. Jacobs is a professor of English literature, but in this book he joins a growing chorus of social psychologists who warn that enlightenment anthropology -- what Jamie Smith memorably calls the "brains-on-a-stick" model of human persons -- falls woefully short of reality. Rather, as ... posted on May 21, 1645 reads

Nature is Medicine -- Even in a Prison Cell
Nalini Nadkarni, a biology professor at the University of Utah who has pioneered techniques for studying tree canopy communities in tropical and temperate forests, started "Moss-in-Prisons," a project in which prisoners joined a research/conservation effort to counteract the destructive effects of collecting wild-grown moss from old-growth forests for the floral trade. "We learned that the inmates... posted on Jul 2, 11419 reads

Are You Walking Through Life in an Underslept State?
Why should you get the World Health Organization's recommended 8 hours of sleep? Matthew Walker, director of the Center for Human Sleep Science at the University of California, Berkeley, and author of the new book, "Why We Sleep", answers that question and more in this NPR interview. Read on to find out why sleep is important, how our environment affects our sleeping patterns, and tips for improvi... posted on Jun 4, 14966 reads

The Rejuvenating Power of Rest
Rest, especially sleep, is a powerful and necessary process of our lives. It is also one of the least honored activities of our days, lives and societies. Matthew Edlund explains both the why and the musical how of resting in this piece.... posted on Jun 1, 13035 reads

From Bomb Site to Medicine Garden
It was a fenced-off World War II bomb site that had rewilded, and a team of London artists decided it was the perfect place to grow a medicine garden. The site is in the middle of a social housing complex in the Bethnal Green neighborhood of Tower Hamlets, a London borough that has become the U.K.'s second most densely populated local authority, the basic unit of local government. But now, the gar... posted on Jun 13, 7091 reads

The Wordplay of Pathways
What is your idea of a pathway; both literal and figurative? And once you have started "down this path", have you ever paused to consider the winding trail of words, meanings and phrases humans use to describe the act of traveling by foot? Find out in this delightful post from a project; dedicated to sharing the moments of life that make you say "Oh, I See"!... posted on Jul 23, 10834 reads

6 Habits of Hope
Hope is often viewed as the anticipation of circumstances being better in the future, but in this article environmentalist and social activist Kate Davies suggests that intrinsic hope is based in the here and now. Applying 6 habits of mindfulness to one's daily life will allow us to live from a place of hope that embraces life as it is now in all of its beauty and complexity. ... posted on Jul 21, 0 reads

Seven Ways Our Businesses Can Help Refugees
There are over 25 million refugees in the world today. Melissa Fleming, chief spokesperson for the UNHCR, the United Nations Refugee Agency has written extensively on ways in which individuals can support displaced people. In this article and TEDtalk, she describes how businesses can do their part: help refugees get work; be an advocate; develop goods and services refugees need; exchange ideas and... posted on Jul 31, 9368 reads

The Lonely Patience of Creative Work
Poet Rainier Maria Rilke believed that patience was vital to creative work: "Being an artist means, not reckoning and counting, but ripening like the tree which does not force its sap and stands confident in the storms of spring without the fear that after them may come no summer. It does come. But it comes only to the patient, who are there as though eternity lay before them, so unconcernedly sti... posted on Jul 8, 11774 reads

In the Business of Change
An increasing number of social entrepreneurs have come to realize that moving from ideation to success often requires going beyond the usual, the traditional, the expected. They need to shake things up, turn ideas upside down and infuse their solutions to challenges with a creative twist, new technology and/or a bold rethink....For social entrepreneurs it's more than being disruptive for the sake ... posted on Aug 10, 7942 reads

The Spiritual Diplomat
Having witnessed the ravages of war in the 1940s, James George determined as a young man to be a peacemaker and harmonizer in the world by working as a diplomat for Canada for 30 years. Ultimately, George realized that only an inner spiritual practice could generate the peace he wished to carry into the world. He applied his spiritual practice by being aware of what is happening moment to moment i... posted on Jun 29, 3074 reads

Little Panic: What It Takes to Break Free from Anxiety
When anxiety takes hold of us, it distorts our experience of the world and causes turbulence in our minds, wreaking havoc on our thoughts and emotions. For someone with severe panic disorder, this can shake them to their very core. Amanda Stern poignantly expresses her experience with anxiety in her book "Little Panic: Dispatches from an Anxious Life," which Maria Popova expertly introduces in Bra... posted on Jul 11, 13404 reads

Green Museum
"I think artists have the opportunity not just to call attention to problems and preach, but to really help solve problems, to help create things that work better, that are just more beautiful and right. We're far more likely to do things that are good for us as a society if we're drawn to them because they look better, are more meaningful and tasty. These are things we'll choose to do simply beca... posted on Jul 29, 2189 reads

Today is a Gift
One afternoon, a group of people showed up a farmers' market with armfuls of wrapping paper and colorful ribbons. They came to gift-wrap the entire street to remind everyone that the present moment is a gift. " We are literally just wrapping up everything in sight" an organizer tells a passerby. Wrapping up the tables and chairs, placing bows on people and dogs -- this video is a joyful reminder t... posted on Aug 1, 4283 reads

Toward a New Conception of God
"Every human being is born with an intrinsic yearning to understand, to contact and, eventually, to serve something higher in ourselves and in the universe. Plato calls this yearning eros. It defines us as human beings -- even more than our biological nature, our social conditioning or our ordinary reasoning capacity. Our modern world-view tragically misperceives and wrongly defines what it is to ... posted on Aug 2, 14008 reads

Satish Kumar: Pilgrim of Peace
"During the Cold War, when the world was tense with mistrust, Satish Kumar walked nearly 13,000 kilometres, with no money, through the four nuclear capitals of the world ... It wasn't Satish's first odyssey. At nine, he left his mother's home to join the wandering Jain monks. He remained with them until he read Gandhi, and began to believe more could be achieved through engagement with global prob... posted on Sep 11, 10023 reads

Laura Grace Weldon: Four Poems
In the poem "Earthbound," author Laura Grace Weldon describes the perfection that exists right before us at the same time we are looking elsewhere with desires and whims. A proponent of "free range learning, creative living, gentle encouragement, big questions, and occasional drollery," Weldon is skilled at illuminating sources of hope in everyday places and people. This group of four poems from M... posted on Sep 17, 13485 reads

An Astronaut's Life-Changing Lesson from a Moment in Orbit
Edgar Mitchell is one of only a handful of people who have walked on another world. Upon his return on Apollo 14 in 1971 after collecting samples from the moon, he had a mystical epiphany that would transform his life. As a result, he set up the Institute of Noetic Sciences in 1973 to investigate psychic and spiritual phenomena and the nature of human consciousness. This contrasts with the typical... posted on Sep 16, 14073 reads

Betty Peck's Magic Mirror
Imagine a magic mirror that you look into to discover how truly wonderful you are. That is the kind of mirror that Betty Peck, a kindergarten teacher with more than 50 years experience, had in all of her classrooms. Whenever one of her students felt worried or unsure, Betty would gently guide the student to look into the magic mirror and say, "How could you forget how wonderful you are?!" In this ... posted on Sep 18, 4690 reads

Raise Your Children to Be Happy, Healthy, Complete
Parents today ... want the very best for our kids. We want them to be smart, athletic, healthy, kind, happy, polite, disciplined, creative and more. We want to give them everything!

Kids on the other hand, are growing up bombarded by technology, needing to compete in every way, comparing themselves with others, trying to be perfect and please their parents, wanting to fit in. As a ... posted on Oct 15, 40706 reads

A Modern Elder Muses on Gratitude in Silicon Valley
What defines the modern elder? Wisdom? Success? Or something different altogether? In this article, Chip Conley reflects on his transition to a Silicon Valley tech startup at the age of 52, following a career in the hospitality industry. Surrounded by much younger coworkers, or "the land of the Millennials", Chip quickly realized that being an elder today is less about reverence and more about rel... posted on Nov 14, 6380 reads

A Kindergarten Student Keeps Her Promise
In 2012 not long after ServiceSpace founder Nipun Mehta gave a commencement speech that went viral, his organization received the following email: "Dear Keepers of ServiceSpace, I thoroughly enjoy your work. Just today I forwarded your graduation speech to my old class. Meanwhile I want to alert you to a remarkable woman, who at 90+ exemplifies so many of the qualities you write about in your colu... posted on Sep 29, 10112 reads

Live In Your Soul: 10 Insights from a Visionary
When a crippling disease shattered his lifelong ambition Dr. Govindappa Venkataswamy chose an impossible new dream: to eliminate needless blindness. By 1976 Dr. V (as he came to be known) had performed over 100,000 sight restoring surgeries. That same year, he retired from government service at the age of 58, and founded Aravind, an 11-bed eye clinic in south India. No money. No business plan. No ... posted on Oct 1, 9954 reads

The Mystique of Rain
Re-awakening a mystique of rain - or a mystique of Earth - isn't a simple task for anyone indoctrinated into the dominant worldview of a dead universe. Like meditation or yoga or darts, it is a practice - a practice that weaves together ecology and spirituality, a practice that might satisfy both the ecologist and mystic, the pragmatist and visionary. Ecology suggests that nothing exists in isolat... posted on Oct 11, 8737 reads

Shekinah Elmore: From Hospital Gown to White Coat
"Shekinah Elmore was not yet a physician when she gave her own second opinion. After a year of cancer treatment -- including lung surgery, chemotherapy, and a double mastectomy --she was hell-bent on starting medical school. Her doctors tried to dissuade her, recommending that she take more time to recover from her third stint with cancer. But two weeks after finishing the therapies that left her ... posted on Jul 11, 2474 reads

Zach Pine: Life Practice
"Well, when I'm out alone at the beach, the first time I scoop up the sand in my hands, that's one magical kind of connection. It's like tasting a food you've never tasted. You have no idea what to expect, all you know is its food. You might think sand it's just sand, but this is not the way I experience it. If I pick up sand at a beach I've never been at, right away, I get all kinds of experience... posted on Oct 5, 2633 reads

How to Break the Loop of Our Destructive Patterns
When we're afraid, we often find ourselves caught up in habitual ways of responding that fail to bring us the relief we seek. "To keep repeating a baleful pattern without recognizing that we are caught in its loop is one of life's greatest tragedies; to recognize it but feel helpless in breaking it is one of our greatest trials; to transcend the fear of uncertainty, which undergirds all such patte... posted on Nov 12, 11557 reads

The Friendship Bench
Globally, more than 300 million people suffer from depression, according to the World Health Organization. Depression is the world's leading cause of disability and it contributes to 800,000 suicides per year, the majority of which occur in developing countries. Yet those suffering from depression have few options due to a dearth of mental health professionals. In brainstorming how to tackle this ... posted on Sep 2, 3021 reads

Daring to Dream: Religion and the Future of the Earth
There is a dawning realization from many quarters that the changes humans are making on the planet are comparable to the changes of a major geological era. The scientific evidence says we are damaging life systems on Earth and causing species extinction (20,000 species lost annually) at such a rate as to bring about the end of our current period, the Cenozoic era. No such mass extinction has occur... posted on Dec 17, 6770 reads

The Bee Guardian
Honey bees have been around for millions of years, and contribute to about one third of the food we eat worldwide. But they are facing enormous challenges, just like the rest of us on the rapidly changing planet we call home. In 2017, bee keepers in the United States lost 40% of their colonies. However, backyard beekeeping is something simple anyone can do. Watch this uplifting video and learn abo... posted on Oct 26, 2416 reads

Say Grace
" I am deeply delighted to live on a planet that is so big and varied that I can confidently say that right this very minute somewhere in the world a crossword puzzle is being completed, a fortune cookie is being snapped open and a song just brought someone to tears. I love knowing that while I am fast asleep in California, a crowd is gathered around the Rosetta Stone at the British Museum, a marr... posted on Oct 30, 3809 reads

The Meadow Across the Creek
At age twelve, Thomas Berry became acquainted with a meadow. That magic moment came to be normative for his thinking: that which preserves and enhances the meadow is good and that which opposes or negates the meadow is not good. He applies this life orientation to economic, political, educational, religious, etc. endeavors. He believes it is by experiencing lilies blooming in a meadow that we reme... posted on Nov 21, 5793 reads

Unlearning Together
Martin Winiecki of the Tamera Peace Research & Education Center in Portugal, writes that our present culture maintains a "mental and spiritual firewall...that hinders us from experiencing our interconnectedness with other beings." He invites us into "a world of full contact, resonance, and communication," by going through three stages of unlearning, beginning with a revolution in consciousness and... posted on Dec 30, 8229 reads