Speechless
"One morning I woke up with no voice, just a faint, breathy whisper. This would be upsetting anytime, but on this particular day it felt as if I were in a fairy tale. In a matter of hours, I was supposed to tell a story and teach mindfulness meditation at the Rubin Museum of Art in Manhattan. And I couldn't make a sound." Parabola's Tracy Cochran shares more in this thought-provoking essay on the ... posted on Aug 1, 7822 reads

The Rise in Giving Across Africa
"Douglas Ng'ang'a stands in the middle of the "slum library" he runs. Only he doesn't take credit for the 3,000 books housed in his childhood home in Nairobi's Mathare Valley. "The books just showed up," he says. Well, not exactly. His neighbors brought them. Ng'ang'a funds the library by working as a driver. He started the collection with 200 of his own books. Members of the community spread the ... posted on Oct 1, 2257 reads

One Breath Around the World
Guillaume Nery can hold his breath underwater for more than seven minutes, dive more than 126 meters without air and has run on ocean floors around the world. He is a professional freediver, meaning he dives without breathing apparatus. The sport of freediving is dangerous, but Guillaume Nery and Julie Gautier's film makes it seem peaceful and serene. The film shows non divers a new way of interac... posted on Aug 16, 2536 reads

A Three Year Road Trip Documenting Kindness
Do you see the world as a place of hope and optimism? Understandably, many people don't as the barrage of bad news hits the news feed every day. Mary Latham is not one of those people though. Instead of withdrawing from the world after the loss of her mother, in 2016 she began a journey to find and create kindness as she traveled across the US. Over the past years, she says she's found nothing but... posted on Sep 7, 2784 reads

Time Out of Joint: Shakespeare in Prison
Rehabilitation through the Arts brought a screening of three films based on Shakespearean works to an upstate New York prison with powerful results. The timeless themes of Shakespeare's writings, themes such as what it means to be a man, to be human, to live in a society with many ills which also provides possibilities for growth and transformation, are discussed after the films are viewed by the ... posted on Dec 3, 1867 reads

Dean Spade: On Normal Life
Dean Spade is an Associate Professor at Seattle University School of Law, a founder of the Sylvia Rivera Law Project (a non-profit law collective that provides free legal services to transgender, intersex and gender non-conforming people who are low-income and/or people of color.) In this thoughtful 2014 interview he discusses the subject of his book "Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical... posted on Aug 24, 2368 reads

Gratitude Behind Bars
"Does gratefulness truly make us happy? How does gratefulness serve us during difficult times? What is your experience of gratitude as a person who is incarcerated and denied so many of the freedoms and privileges associated with happiness? These are some of the questions we explored through Grateful Anyhow, a recent project in partnership with Prisoner Express (PE) that engaged approximately 350 ... posted on Aug 28, 5821 reads

Hannah Shaw: Professional Kitten Rescuer
"Hannah Shaw's job title is "professional kitten rescuer." Known on YouTube and Instagram as the Kitten Lady, Shaw has rescued hundreds of neonatal kittens, often orphaned and unweaned, who are too small and vulnerable to be in an animal shelter. Kittens are a highly euthanized population in shelters because they require a level of care that most shelters cannot provide. That's where Shaw steps in... posted on Oct 6, 4272 reads

Creating a World That Works for All
In a world with overwhelming problems, there can be little reason for hope. In this excerpt of the book, Creating A world That Works For All, Sharif Abdullah is unflinching in what we face: self-destruction. Our world does not even truly work for the select few. The solution is simple: inclusivity. Our lives are inextricably linked. "Inclusivity is the basis for a world that works for all." We mus... posted on Sep 30, 2380 reads

Holy Envy: The Key to Appreciating World Religions
"From an early age, Barbara Brown Taylor knew that she wanted to live a spiritual life."It started early in my life," she says, "a hunger for the beyond, for the transcendent, for the light within the light, the glow within the grass, the sparkle within the water."Taylor went on to become an ordained Episcopal priest, working as rector of a church. But she later left her job with the church and be... posted on Oct 7, 4395 reads

How Craving Attention Makes You Less Creative
Joseph Gordon-Levitt has gotten more than his fair share of attention from his acting career. But as social media exploded over the past decade, he got addicted like the rest of us -- trying to gain followers and likes only to be left feeling inadequate and less creative. In a refreshingly honest talk, he explores how the attention-driven model of big tech companies impacts our creativity -- and s... posted on Feb 24, 5998 reads

What Does it Mean to Love Someone?
What does it mean to love someone? In this heartwarming animated short film produced by Cecilia Baeriswyl and directed by Julio Pot, the dynamics of relationships are explored through an ordinary couple as they learn about the power of giving and receiving. Selected in more than 100 international festivals, this film is at once lighthearted and insightful.... posted on Oct 4, 5394 reads

The Underland is a Deeply Human Realm
Robert Macfarlane writes vividly about outdoor spaces, borders, and the way in which one type of territory transforms subtly into another. His new book, Underland, descends into a quite literally overlooked landscape: the one beneath our feet. He wrestles with grand questions about humanity and its effects on the natural world even as he chronicles journeys to isolated caves, the man-made caverns ... posted on Nov 2, 2899 reads

On Being Alone
On a solo canoe trip down the Green River, paddling through the Canyonlands of southeast Utah, Craig Childs reflects on what it means to be alone in the wild. Encountering risk, isolation, and joy, and entering into conversation with the land and waters around him, Craig explores what happens when we choose to be in solitude.... posted on Oct 23, 12606 reads

Wild Borders
When human cultures rub up against each other, we talk of melting pots and borderlands. When geographic cultures meet up and create a free-flowing arrangement of habitats and life forms, the term used is Biogeographic transition zone. Russ Mcspadden shares the surprises such a vortex presents in this piece from Orion.... posted on Dec 31, 2669 reads

How the Sound of a Space Influences Our Mood
"Step into the underground concourses of New York's Penn Station and you might just feel an uneasy sense of claustrophobia that's hard to explain. Stroll across the hardwood floors at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC and a sense of calmness might descend on you. Why? Each of these buildings has its own unique voice --the way sound behaves in the structure. Think of the way whispers tra... posted on Oct 9, 2247 reads

Bending the Arc: A Friendship that Changed the World
A fledgling group of unstoppable health advocates took on a seemingly impossible mission: global health equity. Harvard medical student Paul Farmer, idealistic physician Jim Yong Kim, and activist Ophelia Dahl successfully raised funding and opened a clinic in 1980s Haiti. Through cultural sensitivity, listening skills, local partnerships, and home visits, the revolutionary Partners In Health was ... posted on Nov 7, 1882 reads

Secret to Life
This lyrical video introduces us to Antoinette, who immediately draws us into her welcoming world of nature and a life lived in sync with the rhythms of the natural world. Early in her life Antoinette was called to living in the wild. "This was the fire that ignited my soul." Antoinette's passion and wisdom are conveyed in her simple words that are poetry to the ears while speaking directly to the... posted on Nov 23, 3698 reads

Why We Turn to Mr. Rogers
"Here's the thing: Mister Rogers almost never taught us that we should be kind. There wasn't much should at all in the Neighborhood. The shoulds that did subtly emerge were more like suggestions. "You might consider sharing who you are through the arts. May I suggest that you find ways to express your feelings? May I remind you, once more, that those expressions don't have to hurt you or anyone el... posted on Nov 27, 13007 reads

Breath of the World
Who among us does not depend on fresh air as the source of our life and well-being? As one Ecuadoran elder said, "It is from the Amazon that the breath of the world comes; without the amazon the world would not breathe.". Our rain forests are all that stand between us and catastrophic climate change. Watch this video and then share it with everyone you know who likes to breathe fresh air.... posted on Nov 30, 1926 reads

How Place Can Connect Us to Gratitude
"Certain places can evoke a profound experience of gratitude for us. Have you ever noticed how your favorite bakery, or neighborhood park, or familiar church, or your own living room, can bring you profound gratitude that you feel in your body?...Place connects us to gratitude, and gratitude connects us to place. And this gratitude also finds its place in our bodies. As we find gratitude in a sens... posted on Dec 7, 6627 reads

Do You Remember Your Song
"When a woman in a certain African tribe knows she is pregnant, she goes out into the wilderness with a few friends and together they pray and meditate until they hear the song of the child. They recognize that every soul has its own vibration that expresses its unique flavor and purpose. Then the women attune to the song, they sing it out loud."... posted on Dec 16, 12195 reads

What Does the Earth Ask of Us?
Robin Wall Kimmerer, scientist, professor of environmental botany, author of Braiding Sweetgrass, and spellbinding storyteller, helps us to hear what the earth is asking of us. With a calm and soothing voice that belies the urgency of her message, she brings us to an awareness that we are called to be living expressions of gratitude for all that the earth has given us, and to give our gifts in ret... posted on Dec 20, 2325 reads

Speaking of Nature
"We have a special grammar for personhood. We would never say of our late neighbor, "It is buried in Oakwood Cemetery." Such language would be deeply disrespectful and would rob him of his humanity. We use instead a special grammar for humans: we distinguish them with the use of he or she, a grammar of personhood for both living and dead Homo sapiens. Yet we say of the oriole warbling comfort to m... posted on Jan 19, 6102 reads

Orion's 25 Most-Read Articles of the Decade
"From 2010 to the present, Orion Magazine has produced over fifty issues full of personal essays and science reporting, poetry and book reviews, photography and art, all responding to the most pressing issues facing the planet. Here are the 25 most-read Orion articles published within the last decade."... posted on Jan 11, 11690 reads

Reflection
Brandur Patursson is an artist from the Faroe Islands who works with light in the creation of his glass and metal sculptures. After losing 70% of the sight in one eye he started understanding what it is to really see. He realized that we see with our eyes, but how we perceive things is what truly gives them meaning in our lives. If we can literally see and reflect on someone's else's feelings inst... posted on Jan 6, 2955 reads

One Love
At five minutes to midnight on June 14, 2018, about 800 people waited to enter Jerusalem's Tower of David Museum. Jews, Muslims and Christians, young and old, most of them strangers to one another, they were forgoing a night's sleep for the chance to sing Bob Marley's "One Love" in three languages and three-part harmony as a show of unity from Israel.... posted on Jan 8, 10572 reads

Finding Chika
Renowned author Mitch Albom introduces us to a story of love, a story about the making of a family through love. He shows us that the rules of what a family should look like don't matter as long as there is love bringing them together. He introduces us to Chika, who became the much beloved daughter of he and his wife Janine after Chika's mother was killed in the earthquake in Haiti in 2010. Chika'... posted on Jan 15, 2074 reads

Overcoming the Brain's Negativity Bias
Why are we waylaid by criticism or unable to get past a minor snub from our best friend? Thats our negativity bias. We humans have a propensity to give more weight in our minds to things that go wrong than to things that go rightso much so that just one negative event can hijack our minds in ways that can be detrimental to our work, relationships, health, and happiness. Overcoming our negativity b... posted on Jan 17, 15921 reads

Meaning and the Song of the Soul
"Meaning is what calls from the depths of the soul.
It is the song that sings us into life. Whether we have a meaningful life depends upon whether we can hear this song, this primal music of the sacred. The sacred is not something primarily religious or even spiritual. It is not a quality we need to learn or to develop. It belongs to the primary nature of all that is. When our ancestors kne... posted on Jan 31, 8288 reads

Jane Rosen: Stay Here. Tell My Story.
"When I arrived from New York and got planted on this horse ranch where I was renting a house, I was supposed to go back to New York, which is my home. I couldnt quite make up my mind what I wanted to do. Then one day I was walking and something called me. I looked up and there was a red-tailed hawk circling over my head. I heard a voice say, clear as day, 'Stay here. Tell my story.'" Artist Jane ... posted on Feb 18, 2723 reads

Refugee Docents Bring a Global Museum to Life
The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology -- known as The Penn Museum -- has hired refugees and immigrants from the Middle East, Africa and Central America as part of their "Global Guides" program. More in this story by NPR.... posted on Feb 22, 2701 reads

Accepting What Is
"When the word acceptance enters a room, but is never far behind. But what about suffering and injustice? What about the pursuit of our personal goals? What about our individual and collective potential? As soon as the idea of acceptance surfaces, we seem to, ironically, brace ourselves against it as though it will render us incapable of anything other than complacency and apathy." This thoughtful... posted on Feb 25, 13466 reads

The One Most Important Thing You Can Do Right Now
"The point to all the closings and all the cancellations is this -- to manage the healthcare system so that it can respond to those who are vulnerable to die from COVID-19, and to shorten the arc of the pandemics duration. In effect it is to keep our bodies from being unwitting vehicles for the virus to jump from doorknob to doorknob, credit card to credit card. The more we lessen our physical sco... posted on Mar 17, 30134 reads

From What Is to What If
"In 'How Did We Do That? The Possibility of Rapid Transition', Andrew Simms and Peter Newell tell the story of Iceland's 2010 Eyjafjallajokull eruption, which sent fine dust into the sky that spread for thousands of miles and grounded most of the world's planes. Then what happened? People adapted. Quickly. Supermarkets replaced air-freighted goods with local alternatives. People discovered other, ... posted on Mar 19, 10815 reads

Every Act a Ceremony
"In a ceremony, one attends fully to the task at hand, performing each action just as it should be. A ceremony is therefore a practice for all of life, a practice in doing everything just as it should be done. An earnest ceremonial practice is like a magnet that aligns more and more of life to its field; it is a prayer that asks, "May everything I do be a ceremony. May I do everything with full at... posted on Apr 25, 8666 reads

Connected
Singer songwriter Luke Dick and a talented group of young people connect in this short video to share a message of hope. With youthful enthusiasm the young conductor leads her small group through the song, enabling us to "hear that cosmic spark" of connection. As the drums, guitar, violin, keyboard and voices all combine in joyful music, we are reminded that we are all connected with all that is, ... posted on Mar 20, 3085 reads

Erich Fromm: The Antidote to Helplessness and Disorientation
"To be human is to be a miracle of evolution conscious of its own miraculousness -- a consciousness beautiful and bittersweet, for we have paid for it with a parallel awareness not only of our fundamental improbability but of our staggering fragility, of how physiologically precarious our survival is and how psychologically vulnerable our sanity. To make that awareness bearable, we have evolved a ... posted on Mar 30, 15042 reads

The Lost Gift
Writing in his journal, nine year old Abeer speaks of his frustrations with having to always prove himself at school and at home, never being allowed to be himself. His heartfelt and eye-opening words remind us that each child really is unique and should be cherished as such. The poignant message is, "Don't look at who your child could be, but who your child is." As Abeer points out, if children t... posted on Apr 3, 3370 reads

Courage & Vulnerability: Corona & the Wisdom of Elders
"In every crisis of my life, learning has helped me find my way through. That means paying attention, allowing myself to feel as well as think, looking at things from different angles, gathering the best info available, trying to connect the dots, and 'living the questions' when the answers elude me." For more than five decades, Parker Palmer has written and spoken about subjects ranging from cont... posted on Apr 6, 17316 reads

Charles Eisenstein: The Coronation
"For years, normality has been stretched nearly to its breaking point, a rope pulled tighter and tighter, waiting for a nip of the black swans beak to snap it in two. Now that the rope has snapped, do we tie its ends back together, or shall we undo its dangling braids still further, to see what we might weave from them? Covid-19 is showing us that when humanity is united in common cause, phenomena... posted on Apr 16, 14314 reads

Powered by Love --- an Emerging Worldview
"There is a worldview that has come to dominate every aspect of global reality affecting human civilization, the natural world and planetary climate conditions. It can be summarized as the quantitative worldview. The quantitative worldview is in a crisis so deep it is leading, in an interconnected and interdependent world, to deep systemic disruptions, chaotic conditions and signs of complete fail... posted on Apr 17, 11269 reads

Three Methods for Working with Chaos
"Times of chaos and challenge can be the most spiritually powerful... if we are brave enough to rest in their space of uncertainty. Pema Chodron describes three ways to use our problems as the path to awakening and joy: go to the places that scare you, use poison as medicine, and regard what arises as awakened energy."... posted on Apr 19, 11940 reads

Going Into the Hospital: COVID 19 (Poem)
"When I walk out the door these days
For a shift in the hospital
Two small people cry at the door
My daughter and son.
4 and 1 1/2
Tears fall
big drops against their full brown cheeks"
So begins this moving poem by Sriram Shamasunder, a physician and father who is leading a HEAL Initiative medical team serving on the ground in Navajo Nation.... posted on May 8, 8521 reads

Gathering Gratefully in the Time of Coronavirus
"The hardships we face may feel amplified by our increasing need to stay home, isolating ourselves from others in service of the common good. Discovering ways to foster ease, belonging, kindness, and well-being under these circumstances may feel challenging, yet opportunities for nourishment can find their way into our worlds. The gifts of technology can offer us meaningful connection and support ... posted on May 12, 7187 reads

Educate the Heart
Poet and author Shane Koyczan narrates this poignant short video on the importance of educating children's hearts as well as their minds. While children need knowledge to prepare them for life, those who love and care for them must also educate their hearts. Teaching compassion, acceptance, tolerance and respect are needed along with knowledge to adequately prepare children for the world.... posted on May 19, 3738 reads

Turning Ourselves Towards Stability and Hospitality
"The Benedictine-Camaldolese monk, Bruno Barnhart says it very well: We humans prefer a manageable complexity to an unmanageable simplicity.
A complex instability is our typical default setting. Restless with where and how and who we are, we think we need to be somewhere else, or live some other way, or be someone else." David Mckee shares more.... posted on May 27, 6315 reads

Zadie Smith on Optimism and Despair
"Caught in the maelstrom of the moment, we forget this cyclical nature of history -- history being merely the rosary of moments the future strings of its pasts. We forget that the present always looks different from the inside than it does from the outside -- something James Baldwin knew when, in considering why Shakespeare endures, he observed: "It is said that his time was easier than ours, but ... posted on Jun 1, 8898 reads

Activism in a Pandemic : Progressive Examples from Australia
Each month the Commons Library provides a small taste of actions and events which challenged the status quo and pointed to better ways forward via their ever growing "From Little Things Big Things Grow: Events That Changed Australia" list. These posts generally focus on events from a particular month, but in response to the Coronavirus pandemic they are sharing protests, campaigns and events from ... posted on Jun 2, 4939 reads

Turning to Face the Dark
"In May of 2019, Rabbi Dr. Ariel Burger sat down with educator and writer Parker J. Palmer for an unscripted conversation. What emerged was a wide-ranging contemplative dialogue on suffering, healing, and joy. Parker is the author of 'Five Habits to Heal the Heart of Democracy', and many other life-changing books. Ariel is the author of 'Witness: Lessons from Elie Wiesel's Classroom'"
... posted on Jun 9, 7927 reads