Dealing with the Darkness of What Humans Do to Humans
The darkest capacities of humans to hurt fellow humans and destroy the natural world offer us the challenge of shifting our consciousness to discover what humanity can achieve through awareness, to create something alive and dynamic instead. Two organizations, Rising Women Rising World and FemmeQ have identified five of the outstanding qualities of feminine intelligence --available to men as to wo... posted on Dec 21, 8589 reads

World-class Voice Prosthesis for $1
When Dr. U.S. Vishal Rao, a Bengaluru-based oncologist, saw how many stage four throat cancer patients struggled to afford expensive imported voice prosthesis to be able to speak again, he decided to do something about it. Together with his friend Shashank Mahesh, Dr. Vishal invented an incredibly low-priced voice device called 'Aum Voice Prosthesis.' Costing only $1, the device has helped 200 peo... posted on Jan 3, 5800 reads

Where Homework Means Building Affordable Housing
Each year, beginning in the fall, a group of third-year architecture students from Auburn University take up residence in a small rural Alabama town to begin building a house. In the winter, when a new semester begins, they are replaced at the Newbern, Alabama, project site by another cohort of 16 students who finish up the job and prepare the house for its new occupants. The 20K Home Project bega... posted on Nov 30, 4007 reads

In the Footsteps of Kabir
Possibly the most-quoted poet-saint of north India is Kabir, the illiterate, 15th century mystic who belonged to a class of weavers in the ancient city of Varanasi. Kabir was a 'nirguni', one who believes in a formless divinity that can be discovered both within and without. With whip-like wit, his poetry scorns outward rituals and displays of piety exhorting his listeners to seek the divine throu... posted on Nov 19, 14569 reads

Shin Terayama: A Radical Healing
From his hospital bed one night, Terayama had a strange dream. He was looking at his body in a coffin. He was 47, and did not yet know he had cancer. That soon changed. After surgery, chemo and radiationwith his cancer now out of reach of medical curehe went home to face death." A few mornings later, I had a very strange sensation in my body. When the sun came up, the sunlight came into my heart, ... posted on Dec 11, 4272 reads

They Sang with a Thousand Tongues
This season of turning, things going to ground with the promise of new life to come, has many stories from many cultures. It can be easy to get caught up in the fear of unfamiliar stories making the ones we use to give us hope in the cold and dark of winter. Another frame might serve us better. In this essay by Bayo Akomolafe provides the hopeful frame of many voices harmonizing in a joyous chorus... posted on Dec 27, 6582 reads

Okagesama
Okagesama is the awareness that what is inside the walls of your house or under the skin of your body or any aspect of your life and experience are elements that cannot be seen. They are in the shadows and in order to see them, we have to look very deeply. Gregg Krech writes that we have to see with more than our eyes. There are unseen forces in our lives that make them possible. When we reflect o... posted on Dec 23, 7594 reads

Home: The Movie
World renowned photographer, Yann Arthus-Bertrand, released "Home" on World Environment Day, June 5, 2009. Shot in 54 countries and 120 locations over 217 days, "Home" is almost entirely composed of aerial footage showing how everything on earth is interconnected. Though the visually stunning images inspire a sense of awe, wonder, and appreciation for our home planet, this film was produced to awa... posted on Dec 29, 3380 reads

Outside of Time: A Conversation with Linda Connor
"I was flunking French and my uncle paid for a summer in France so I could study French. I'd taken the family Brownie. Later that year I got a basic 35mm, and I just loved making pictures. From then on it was like, 'Okay, this is it!'"Linda Connor went to RISD and studied with Harry Callahan. From there she went to SF where she met Imogene Cunningham. She soon had a job at the San Francisco Art In... posted on Dec 28, 2077 reads

Leftover Women Take Over the Marriage Market
In China, a woman who is unmarried by age 25 is considered a "leftover woman." She feels like an outsider, and in a culture with great respect for parents, she may feel like a failure. A group of such women went to the Marriage Market and put up large photos of themselves, and messages like "don't give up love for suitability" or expressing the wish not to marry. Their fundamental message is "Don'... posted on Dec 19, 2906 reads

Why It's Worth Listening to People You Disagree With
Zachary R. Wood invites controversy into his life. Raised by a schizophrenic mother, he learned that people are complicated and challenging, but they can bring us into a deeper understanding. In this Ted talk, he describes growing up in a difficult home that was also supportive. He attended an elite, predominantly white, private school where as a black student, he felt the sting of being stereotyp... posted on Jan 26, 16582 reads

Nuggets of Wisdom from 10 Everyday Heroes
Saturday Awakin Calls are moderated live conversations where amazing people share their journeys and interact with listeners. These conversations are then transcribed and archived creating a treasure trove describing the many ways to "be the change" we want to see in the world. In this post, an Awakin Calls volunteer shares some of her favorite jewels from this past year's most memorable calls. R... posted on Jan 21, 7093 reads

Breakthrough Generation: A Story of Transformation
"He must have been around 66. When he walked in through the sliding glass doors, he had to bend down a little bit to avoid hitting the top beam. He was a well-built African American. He was dressed to kill. His blue full-sleeved shirt still looked prim, proper, neatly pressed with the crease still showing although it was towards the end of a working day. His black slacks looked classy, professiona... posted on Jan 7, 8132 reads

The Wisdom of Circles: In Conversation with John Malloy
John Malloy tends fires. He is a guardian of safe spaces where people gather. John began tending fires in this spirit as a county probation senior group counselor. He then co-founded The Foundry, a school for kids who had been in jail. John currently works as an Intervention Specialist in schools and leads an Intergenerational Support Group for people challenged by grief and trauma. For over fifty... posted on Jan 24, 10853 reads

Recording Nature's Conversation
Matt Mikkelsen is a documentary film maker, sound recordist and environmental activist in an unusual cause: the preservation of "natural silence"soundscapes undisturbed by the noise of human activity. He works with Gordon Hempton on the One Square Inch of Silence project, symbolised by a small red stone placed in the centre of the Hoh Rain Forest in Olympic National Park, Washington State, the so-... posted on Feb 18, 6707 reads

The Urgency of Slowing Down
Join Krista Tippett from On Being in this intimate interview with Pico Iyer, author of over a dozen books and chronicler of the "global soul". Based in Japan, he's traveled across our blue planet paying special attention to the mapping and modern rediscovery of our inner world. But he also experiences a remote Benedictine hermitage as his second home, retreating there many times each year. In this... posted on Feb 5, 8611 reads

ËœNYC Books Through Bars
"I recently slipped through a sidewalk cellar door to enter the basement of Freebird Books, a large space crammed with books organized into different sections, where I spent the evening reading letters from prison inmates and selecting and packaging books for them. At least twice a week, volunteers go through the 700-800 letters NYC Books Through Bars, a collective based in New York City, New York... posted on Jan 13, 5358 reads

Mary Oliver: Instructions for Living A Life
Mary Oliver was one of the most beloved poets of our times. A writer who was dazzled by her daily experience of life, and dazzled the rest of us by telling about it in her poems and essays. She deliberately stayed out of the public eye and what follows is one of her rare interviews -- a conversation with On Being's Krista Tippett. Read on for a glimpse of the remarkable woman who once wrote: "Wh... posted on Jan 18, 46790 reads

Family Is Helping Others to Heal
Oscar Grant III was an unarmed Black man killed by a police officer in Oakland, Calif., years before Black Lives Matter drew national attention to the growing number of unarmed Black men, women and children who die at the hands of law enforcement officers what some scholars are calling an epidemic.Jan. 1 marked 10 years since the 22-year-old father was fatally shot by the Bay Area Regional Transit... posted on Mar 16, 3593 reads

The New and Ancient Story of Interbeing
"Why does the sun shine? A random result of coalescing gases igniting nuclear fusion? Or is it in order to give its light and warmth to Life? Why does the rain fall? Is it the senseless product of blind chemical processes of evaporation and condensation? Or is it to water life? Why do you seek to pour forth your song? Is it to show off your genetic fitness to attract a mate, or is it to contribute... posted on Feb 6, 9584 reads

Hands Across the Hills
Hands Across the Hills formed in response to the 2016 United States presidential election with the goal of bringing together people who voted differently, face to face. Two small groups, progressives in rural Western Massachusetts (MA) and conservatives in Eastern Kentucky (KY) coal country, met for two weekends of dialogue and cultural exchange in each others towns in fall 2017 and spring 2018.... posted on Feb 25, 7452 reads

Into the Middle of Nowhere
Imaginations run wild in this touching video of young children as they explore their surroundings at an outdoor nursery in Scotland. With admirable patience and unwavering deliberation, they build an aeroplane and travel the world without ever leaving the ground. Press play to witness the human mind's capacity for creativity, connection, and joy of discovery.... posted on Feb 28, 2561 reads

Why Shadows Were Invented
In 'From These Wilds Beyond Our Fences,' Bayo Akomolafe points out that when Seventeenth-century physicist Francesco Grimaldi directed a focused ray of sunlight in a dark room, managing the ray so that it struck a thin rod and produced a shadow on a screen, he proved that light behaves in unexpected ways. In fact, light is only one side of a whole,like yin and yang. Thus "darkness is not the absen... posted on Mar 21, 7400 reads

Three Minutes and a Pair of Socks
Our daily interactions have great potential: to shape our futures, our families, our life's work, or simply to brighten someone's day. We often don't know where a brief exchange with the checkout clerk might lead or how our kind words will impact a stranger. Yet sometimes we are given the gift of witnessing a single conversation's journey, gaining glimpses into the lives it touches along the way. ... posted on Mar 6, 9169 reads

Who Gets to Cry?
Climate change is destroying many places we love points out Trebbe Johnson, and while some of us turn away from admitting this, others are filled with sorrow. But here's what's most difficult: "Many of us are simply afraid that if we allow ourselves to wade, even for a moment, into the feelings of sadness for the living world that lap at the edge of our consciousness, we will find ourselves pulled... posted on Apr 1, 6565 reads

At-One-Ment: In Conversation with Rabbi Michael Lerner
Rabbi Lerner's life work has been to develop a politics of meaning, to heal, repair and transform politics in the US. He feeds the hunger in us for a different kind of society - one based on the principles of caring, ethical and spiritual sensitivity, and communal solidarity. This inspiring interview shares more.... posted on Mar 30, 9111 reads

Therapy Dogs Help Kids With Trauma Tell Their Stories
Companions for Courage in Orlando, Florida, is a community outreach program that provides therapy dogs for children who have experienced trauma and need to confront that trauma in court. The dogs provide a sense of security, creating a bond with child victims, giving them the courage and confidence to face the court situation. The dogs enable the children to stay calm and tell their stories. The c... posted on Mar 8, 1984 reads

We Became Fragments
This powerful film chronicles the journey of Ibraheem Sarhan, a Syrian teenager, as he adapts to a new life in Winnipeg, Canada. Following the loss of his mother and four siblings in a bombing that left him injured, Ibraheem left Syria with his father. "We went out against our will and we shall return with our hope," he says. Watch Ibraheem as he navigates his first week of high school in this sto... posted on Mar 23, 2505 reads

In Which the River Makes Off with Three Stationery Characters
The river beckons the lumberjacking beaver and spawning chinook salmon to capture its currents, to countervail its flow. Befurred and befinned they dance to its gurgling song but do not yield to the flow, living for their time as dissenters, laboring at cross-purposes against currents as frantically stationary characters in their water world - "there is music that will dissolve your anchors, your ... posted on Jun 12, 2173 reads

Phil Cass: Shifting the Healthcare Paradigm
Phil Cass is making a difference in Columbus, Ohio. He describes how shocked he was to discover that physicians have become the #1 group of people who commit suicide in the U.S. Working with staff, he remade the culture of the medical association, and their affiliate corporations, into a highly participatory culture and spearheaded the creation a free health care clinic for the uninsured. Over 5,0... posted on Apr 3, 2000 reads

Who is Mother?
Matt Hopwood is a writer, storyteller and founder of A Human Love Story. He has traveled widely to gather peoples experiences of love and connection. In 2018 after the death of his beloved grandmother - he wanted to explore the role of mother in our lives and communities. Matt eventually grew the awareness of the sense of Mother in himself. He shares with us his yearning to nurture, the longing to... posted on May 14, 5879 reads

Harbored by a Mulberry Tree
Kate Legge, journalist and author, reflects on her life through her relationships with trees. One of her life long friends and teachers was the mulberry in her back garden growing up. Here, held in its arms, she was able to cross the threshold into enchantment. She learned to appreciate the world we live in and natures ingenious design, by becoming a tree whisperer.... posted on May 5, 7282 reads

The Obvious is Elusive
Moshe Feldenkrais, a physicist and Judo blackbelt who developed a somatic education method named after him, challenges us to think differently. He says that "speaking is not thinking, although we "obviously" consider them as the same thing...Suffice to think what God, truth, justice, honesty, communism, fascism, and so on mean in different human societies to see that much of our trouble lies in th... posted on Apr 29, 4777 reads

10 Sharing-Focused Books to Read this Spring
Whenever people come together, something has to be shared. in the workplace, the home, the neighborhood; even in the grocery store. The books in this book list from Shareable, an award winning nonprofit, delve into understanding the what, who, how and why of sharing our way into a brighter future. Dive in and get inspired, excited and sharing.... posted on Apr 28, 8960 reads

SuperBetter: A Healing Game
In the face of death, or other deeply challenging circumstances, how would you respond? Many people come to such moments full of suffering and regret. What if you could do small things every day that would help you face life's challenges in a way that fosters resilience and transformation? In this research-packed and fun TED talk, on-line game designer Jane McGonigal guides a real-time social game... posted on May 10, 17874 reads

Stress and the Social Self
"Relationships, Adrienne Rich argued in her magnificent meditation on love, refine our truths. But they also, it turns out, refine our immune systems. That's what pioneering immunologist Esther Sternberg examines in The Balance Within: The Science Connecting Health and Emotions--a revelatory inquiry into how emotional stress affects our susceptibility to burnout and disease." Maria Popova shares m... posted on Mar 2, 6538 reads

A Rite of Passage for Late Life
In this TED residency talk, Bob Stein reveals his transition into using a new ritual to mark his later life. He proposes a new tradition of giving away your things and sharing the stories behind them as you get older, to reflect on your life so far, open conversations and connections that might not happen otherwise and move into the next phase prepared for whatever might come next.... posted on Apr 15, 4543 reads

Are Social Change and Scale Mutually Exclusive?
"As the clarion call for scale increases in volume, it is worth always asking, what is it we want to scale? And how will it enable social change for those who have been kept at the bottom of the pyramid?" Dr Arun Kumar is the CEO of Apnalaya, an organization that does remarkable work to create self-sustaining communities within the slums of Mumbai. In this piece he shares more about their model, a... posted on Apr 17, 4129 reads

Parker Palmer Muses on the Season
"I will wax romantic about spring and its splendors in a moment, but first there is a hard truth to be told: before spring becomes beautiful, it is plug ugly, nothing but mud and muck. I have walked in the early spring through fields that will suck your boots off, a world so wet and woeful it makes you yearn for the return of ice. But in that muddy mess, the conditions for rebirth are being create... posted on Apr 20, 0 reads

Coming Back to Being: A Conversation with Alan Wallace
Alan tells how as a young man, he reached a moment where he sent out a message to the universe. I need to meet a wise old man, and I need it now! He was hitchhiking alone in Norway when, as he says, I looked over my shoulder and saw a little black VW bug pulled over. There was a little old man, beckoning to me. Would you like a ride? Thus begins our remarkable interview with one of the preeminent ... posted on Apr 23, 4046 reads

The Call for a Capitalist Reformation
If business leaders want to take credit for all the good that has come from capitalism, then we also must reconcile all the bad that has come along with it. One way to do that is to use our unique power and privilege to design and invest in a better system that serves all of us, not just some of us." Jay Coen Gilbert Co-founder of B Lab and the movement of Certified B Corporations shares more in t... posted on May 4, 4803 reads

Send Silence Packing: A Mission of Hope
Sometimes things fall apart in a way that we simply fall silent. Sometimes there simply are no words we can say or hear to help us deal with our trauma. Such quiet time can provide the buffer necessary to absorb the impact. Staying here too long though can bring the necessary healing process to a halt, both for ourselves and others suffering in similar ways. Read this story of how one woman decide... posted on Sep 3, 3655 reads

Remembering Jean Vanier: The Living Saint
Canadian Catholic philosopher, theologian and humanitarian Jean Vanier, a man who dedicated his life to helping those less fortunate, passed away in Paris this May at the age of 90. Founder of L'Arche, a federation of communities spread over 37 countries for people with disabilities, as well as of Faith and Light, with similar works in more than 80 countries, he has written 30 books on religion, d... posted on May 21, 3491 reads

Farewell to Jean Vanier
Jean Vanier, philosopher, theologian, humanist and founder of L'Arche departed our physical world on May 7, 2019 at the age of 90. His heart, his love and his compassion live on in the hundreds of communities that have sprung from his love and compassion for humanity. This world wide movement is based on Vanier's belief that people with disabilities are teachers, rather that burdens to society.... posted on Jun 30, 6336 reads

Why We Walk
Erling Kagge is a Norwegian explorer, lawyer, art collector, author, and the first person to have completed the Three Poles Challenge on foot --the North Pole, the South Pole and the summit of Mount Everest. Kagge is also the author of "Walking: One Step at a Time," and six other books. What follows is an excerpt from Walking.

... posted on May 31, 5793 reads

Weeds: A Conversation with Doug Burgess
Photography is a way of probing the world, says Burgess. Take weeds, for instance. "Two or three years ago, one weed was the same as another for me. That's changed now. I can go anyplace and feel that I have friends and knowledge. I mean I know the weeds by name now and know a little about them. Maybe it's one of the major tools I've found to come to some sort of ease with the world." There's much... posted on Jun 5, 2234 reads

Navigating the Transition into Caregiving
"Being a caregiver is not something most people think or dream about, let alone prepare for, even though it's a role many of us will inhabit, since there are approximately 43 million informal caregivers in the United States and 6.5 million caregivers in the United Kingdom. When a loved one becomes a caregiver everything changes, including responsibilities, beliefs, hopes, expectations and relation... posted on Jun 6, 10410 reads

Complicating the Narratives
"Complicating the narrative means finding and including the details that don't fit the narrative -- on purpose. The idea is to revive complexity in a time of false simplicity. 'The problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue but that they are incomplete,' novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie says in her mesmerizing TED Talk "A Single Story." '[I]t's impossible to engage properly with a place... posted on Nov 21, 2142 reads

If Life Wins There Will Be No Losers
Many, many people are feeling the widespread longing for a tenable alternative to capitalism - an urgent need for new regenerative ways of living. We feel this need both in our individual lives and in the larger ways we live together; in neighborhoods, cities, nations. We can't create a regenerative culture solely by trying to "smash capitalism". Instead, we need to understand and heal the underly... posted on Jul 2, 6993 reads

The Wanderer: Earth as Art
"There is this one extravaganza, already in production for five million years now, called Earth. Because it is so full of redundancies, so repetitious in its winters and fishes, we feel we have seen enough to get a handle on it; we would like to set out our critique of the planet's aesthetic merits and failures before we are toast like Tacitus. There was once a critique that it was "very good," bu... posted on Mar 9, 2376 reads