Welcome
"Only a person who intended to enter room 520 would walk to the end of the long hospital hallway, and that morning I had gone there as part of my rounds. I was in the midst of my second unit of training to become a healthcare chaplain, this one in a struggling hospital that served the most disenfranchised. Our patients were those without friends or family, or those whose friends and family could n... posted on Jan 21, 4602 reads

Peace Is Every Step: Thich Nhat Hanh's 95 Year Earthwalk
"Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk who was one of the worlds most influential Zen masters, spreading messages of mindfulness, compassion and nonviolence, died on Saturday at his home in the Tu Hieu Temple in Hue, Vietnam. He was 95. A monk with global influence and an ally of Martin Luther King, he championed what he called 'engaged Buddhism,' applying its principles in pressing for peac... posted on Jan 22, 9581 reads

Retriever of Souls
"At night, only at night, her mind grows timber-thickso dense and brambled, there's no way to find her, let alone bring her back to bed. Gone, then, is the tumbleweed-haired, half-feral kid who rode her goat every morning to the preschool up the hill. The kid who by fourth grade volunteered at the local vet clinic, where she sat with the grieving, while their pets died. More than once, I've been a... posted on Jan 30, 5452 reads

Hargila: A Story of Love & Conservation
In an age of massive global extinctions, a remarkable wildlife biologist in Indias Northeast shows the life-saving impact of simple, direct local action. When Dr. Purnima Devi Barman decided to dedicate herself to the survival of the Hargila, Assam's resident greater adjutant crane, the local population in Guwahati was a mere 20 nests. The scruffy, prehistoric bird was detested and routinely kille... posted on Feb 11, 2125 reads

The Power of Placebos
"Since the 1800s, the word placebo has been used to refer to a fake treatment, meaning one that does not contain any active, physical substance. Today, placebos play a crucial role in medical studies in which some participants are given the treatment containing the active ingredients of the medicine, and others are given a placebo. These types of studies help tell researchers which medicines are e... posted on Feb 12, 5399 reads

Starling Murmurations: The Science Behind Nature's Great Display
"Watching starling murmurations as the birds swoop, dive and wheel through the sky is one of the great pleasures of a dusky winters evening. From Naples to Newcastle these flocks of agile birds are all doing the same incredible acrobatic display, moving in perfect synchrony. But how do they do it? Why dont they crash? And what is the point?"... posted on Feb 18, 5324 reads

Understory: A Journey into the Tongass National Forest
Tongass National Forest, the largest temperate rainforest in the world, is in jeopardy. Covering most of southeastern Alaska, it is part of the world's last intact temperate rainforests which spans from Northern California to Alaska. Three friends who care deeply about the perils to the forest caused by the logging of old growth trees, document the "battle against short sighted greed and the ruin... posted on Feb 19, 1828 reads

False Alarm: A Plea for the Earth Music Video
Wake up to the ways the Earth cries out for our care. Ryan Amador and Alixa Garcia team up to show us both the hope and the destruction happening all around. Watch it all the way through without averting your gaze or closing your heart.... posted on Mar 11, 2200 reads

Oncology Yoga: Tapping into the Wisdom of the Body
"As an integrative yoga teacher with a background in various yoga modalities, I aim to follow the needs of my students as they arise, not only those needs affected by their internal atmosphere, but also the collective needs. Meeting them where they are. This is a simple story of how this aspect of yoga intensified in my life. I will tell it primarily through the voice of 2 of my students, who tell... posted on Mar 16, 3772 reads

Jewels: A Three Part Chant
"Every time I go into the darkness, I return with fistfuls of jewels." So begins a three-part chant in praise of winter's gifts, by singer-songwriter, voice coach and author Barbara McAfee. Her soulful music is accompanied by exquisite visuals, the work of nature photographer Julie Brown. Watch the music video and read Barbara's description of the song's origins here.... posted on Mar 19, 8609 reads

Seek Silence
Silence helps us to explore our shared humanity as it speaks to the part of life that is beyond words. This video created by Green Renaissance and filmed in South Africa encourages us to hear the words that silence whispers to our hearts and to find a quiet space in the busyness of life, wherever we live. It invites us to explore what silence means to us.... posted on Mar 26, 3315 reads

A Selfless Respect for Reality
"Thinking about our current global situation, I recall the work of Kazimierz Dabrowski, the Polish psychiatrist and psychologist who proposed a theory of personality development called positive disintegration. This is a transformational approach to psychological growth based on the idea that crises are important for our personal maturation. Dabrowski's concept is similar to a tenet of systems theo... posted on Mar 31, 4415 reads

Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention
"I think there's a more interesting definition of attention that's been developed really in the last five years in this new attentional environment that comes from a man named James Williams Dr. James Williams who was at the heart of Google for many years, was horrified by what they were doing to our attention, quit, and became, I would argue, the most important philosopher of attention in the w... posted on Apr 4, 9311 reads

The Anatomy of Anxiety
"Anxiety is "that hypervigilant feeling that escalates swiftly to a sense of catastrophe and doom," writes Ellen Vora, M.D., in her new book, The Anatomy of Anxiety: Understanding and Overcoming the Bodys Fear Response. Anxiety is "as grounded in the body as it is in the mind." Too often, she argues, we turn to only mental solutions for what is in part a physical problem."... posted on Apr 7, 9042 reads

Centering: In Pottery, Poetry, and the Person
"Governed by her conviction that "poets are not the only poets" and that artists don't leave their art at the studio, M.C. Richards explores the poetry of personhood through the metaphor of centering, drawn from the craftsmanship of pottery --a potter brings the clay to the center of the wheel, then begins the process of giving the amorphous spinning mass the desired shape." Maria Popova shares mo... posted on Apr 10, 3846 reads

Ukrainian Teens' Voices from the Middle of War
"A colleague from Kyiv, Ukraine, whom Ill call N.M., sent me brief essays her students wrote on what they would do when the war ends. As both a scholar and a novelist, I knew that these voices, which expressed a beautifully straightforward and pure yearning for the simplest things that are lost in war, needed to be heard by the world."... posted on Apr 11, 4842 reads

Reflections of a Jungian Analyst
At the end of her training, artist and psychotherapist, Rue Harrison had the good fortune to have Gareth Hill as her supervising consultant. At the conclusion of her work with Hill, she asked Gareth if he'd be willing to share some of his own experiences in a recorded interview. What follows is an inspiring example of the archetype of the wounded healer and the deep power of suffering transformed.... posted on Jul 23, 3156 reads

Sharing the Joy of Simple Living
Ever dream of living a simpler, more community-rooted lifestyle? Ever wondered if you & your friends really could grow your own food? Or build your own house? What would it look like to dedicate your pursuits and personal interests to match up with an intention of peace, respect for nature, long-term sustainability...and JOY? Meet several young people who made this dream their reality with a proje... posted on Apr 16, 2477 reads

Living in the Time of Dying
"This recent film, Living in the Time of Dying, made by the Australian film-maker Michael Shaw in response to his own dawning awareness of species extinction, asks bluntly: "Are humans likely to become extinct?" To find answers, Michael sold his home and with his partner Michelle Walker set off on a journey around the world to interview four people who have been speaking on the issue. The result i... posted on Apr 21, 4468 reads

To Observe that Kind of Devotion
"Orion's poetry editor Camille Dungy recently sat down with poet, friend, and Orion board member Major Jackson to discuss their thoughts on literary stewardship, environmental writings complicated legacy, the sacred inner lives of Black children, small towns, urban parks, building community, talking to foxes, and connection to the natural world." Check out their conversation here. ... posted on Apr 28, 1723 reads

Called to the Sea
Roger Hanson, a retired school teacher and an ocean advocate, has always loved the sea. He was called to live near the ocean after a chance encounter with a whale many years ago. One day, while diving in Long Beach, California he happened upon a tiny species that seemed oddly out of place. He has since dedicated his life to protecting the habitat of the Pacific Seahorse, and he has come to be call... posted on Apr 29, 1706 reads

How to Stay Open and Curious in Hard Conversations
"To have a chance at really hearing other beliefs, philosopher David Smith teaches, you have to value truth more than your own opinion, and you have to come in with a measure of humility. With nothing more than these two questions, we can help our minds move from certainty to uncertainty, finding gaps in understanding that help our curiosity catch on." The following piece shares eight tips for hav... posted on Apr 30, 9186 reads

A New Hotline for a Pep Talk from Kindergartners
"Amid a crush of heavy news from around the world, who couldn't use some sage advice right now? Call a new hotline, and you'll get just that -- encouraging words from a resilient group of kindergartners. Kids' voices will prompt you with a menu of options: If you're feeling mad, frustrated or nervous, press 1. If you need words of encouragement and life advice, press 2. If you need a pep talk from... posted on May 1, 5673 reads

Solving Complex Problems Relying on Diversity and Inclusion
"This five-stage process originated in ancient Tibet as the Four Karmas (actions). It demands
deep inquiry: we rely on differences of experience and perception in order to discern actions
that might bring sanity to addressing the issue. It requires humility: we honor the fact that no
one person or group has the answer (not even me). It requires appreciation: the experiences of... posted on May 3, 1966 reads

Prophets Without Robes or Staffs
"Today and always, the prophet confronts a dark object, a menacing, enigmatic, obdurate reality affecting the entire community. How to grasp that dark object? Where are the handholds? What approach would permit one to slow the dark object, to interrogate it, to bring it to light, to dispel and transform its menace?"... posted on May 21, 2199 reads

Meet the Four Characters of Your Brain
"I am a brain enthusiast. (I'm sure you have picked up on that by now.) But, beyond the beauty of this amazing organ we all have inside our heads, it is our remarkable brain cells that manifest our choices and abilities. When we understand which cells manifest which of our abilities, the more power we have to choose who and how we want to be in any moment. I consider my new book, Whole Brain Livin... posted on May 22, 4686 reads

Suzanne Simard: Forests are Wired for Wisdom
"Suzanne Simard is the forest ecologist who has proven, beyond doubt, that trees communicate with each other that a forest is a single organism wired for wisdom and care. Simard found that the processes that make for a high-functioning forest mirror the maps of the human brain that were also just now drawing. All of this turns out to be catching up with intelligence long held in aboriginal scienc... posted on Jun 1, 4088 reads

The Age of the Possible
"...the octopus

with her body-shaped mind
and her eight-arm embrace
of alien realities,
with her colorblind vision
sightful of polarized light
and her perpetually awestruck
lidless eye

can see


shades of blue we cannot conceive."...

In this hypnotic poem Maria Popova views the age of the A... posted on Jun 5, 1478 reads

Collective Nouns for Humans in the Wild
When Kathy Fish was asked, in 2017, to contribute to the online journal, Jellyfish Review, she had a piece all cued up-- but then something happened in Las Vegas, that shook the nation, and Fish found herself writing a different piece for the platform instead. It went viral. It was titled, "Collective Nouns for Humans in the Wild." In Fish's words, "It weighs in at under 150 words and I've seen pe... posted on Jun 6, 3959 reads

Overcoming the Stigma of Mental Health Issues
"A recent study published in December by the JAMA Network Open suggests that things may finally be starting to change. But the picture is complicated: Some kinds of illness are becoming less stigmatized, true, but people still want to keep distance from other forms. The good news is that young people are much less likely to stigmatize mental illness than older generations, and that there are speci... posted on Jun 14, 2837 reads

The Night Is Just Beginning
Vocal artist Mariana Sadovska traveled along the front lines of the first invasion of the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine from 2014 to 2016, giving benefit concerts and meeting people in the war-ravaged area. Based on her journey, she created a unique musical story - The Night Is Just Beginning - that is all too relevant today. This excerpt of the performance, called "Tovye Imya" (Your Name), beg... posted on Jun 24, 1543 reads

Anatomy of a Wave: A Triptych
"We like to imagine --in our humanness-- waves as traveling water bodies. But that isn't quite accurate. Waves are kinetic energy from vibrating water particles interacting through seawater. The particles move perpendicularly back and forth to create energy, the water forms a circular motion in relation to the seafloor and wind, an orbital rotation is born. The water itself doesn't travel very far... posted on Jul 6, 1753 reads

The Paradoxes of Healing
Lissa Rankin, MD, describes herself as a skeptic. She is a Western-trained ob-gyn, linear thinker, and evidence-informed scientist. In the same breath, however, she also describes herself as a mystic an open-hearted, spiritually alive, empathic healer who has witnessed countless miracles of healing and has also experienced them firsthand herself. What follows is an excerpt from her book, "Sacred ... posted on Jul 7, 7506 reads

Grateful Voices
"Grateful Voices is a video project highlighting the stories of seven individuals with seven different life stories, each of whom finds gratefulness amidst pain, suffering and all of life's challenges. For one participant, gratefulness is "like a friend sitting next to me." Whether it be through loss or the acceptance of a disability, they express the gift that it is to be alive in any given momen... posted on Jul 8, 1901 reads

An Immense World
"Made famous by zoologist Jakob von Uexkull in 1909, the term Umwelt refers to the perceptual world experienced by each animal, a highly specific kind of "sensory bubble." When we walk our dog and she stops to smell every other bush or car tire, she's taking in through her acutely sensitive nose smells that we take in faintly or not at all. That's because humans and dogs have two different sensory... posted on Jul 21, 2443 reads

How Do You Know If You Are Actually Humble?
"Despite intellectual humility being the subject of intense scientific study in recent years, there remains debate among scientists on how best to measure it. That debate begins with a basic question: What is intellectual humility? Most scientists agree that being aware of your intellectual limitations and the fallibility of your beliefs is an important part of intellectual humility, but beyond th... posted on Jul 24, 4591 reads

East Hill Farm: A Leap of Faith
"Once upon a time...many years ago, when a now very old man was but a youth, he felt something was mysteriously missing in his life, but he didn't know what it was or where to find it. He wasn't even sure how to begin looking for it. "Go find Truth and Knowledge," he was told. "When you find them, you'll know what's missing and how to find it." What follows is an excerpt from Jonathan James's book... posted on Aug 5, 2633 reads

Cooking in the Ainu Way
"Eiko Soga is a Japanese-born artist and teacher who has had a long-term interest in exploring new forms of relationship with the natural world.She has just completed a PhD research project at the University of Oxford which involved living with a community of Ainu people in Northern Japan. In this interview she speaks about what her experience with the Ainu taught her about ecologically-aware way... posted on Aug 11, 2200 reads

robert wolff: Original Wisdom
"I have known truly free humans... As all First People they lived far away from roads, it required walking through jungle to reach them. I did not know a word of their language, but there was usually at least one person in the small groups of nomads who understood some words of the language of the country. But our communication was as much through touch, smiles, laughter, and something inside that... posted on Aug 17, 3939 reads

When I Die Recompose Me
What if our bodies could help grow new life after we die, instead of being embalmed and buried or turned to ash? Join Katrina Spade as she discusses "recomposition" -- a system that uses the natural decomposition process to turn our deceased into life-giving soil, honoring both the earth and the departed.... posted on Aug 20, 3199 reads

Robin Wall Kimmerer: Returning the Gift
"Though we live in a world made of gifts, we find ourselves harnessed to institutions and an economy that relentlessly asks, What more can we take from the Earth? This worldview of unbridled exploitation is to my mind the greatest threat to the life that surrounds us. Even our definitions of sustainability revolve around trying to find the formula to ensure that we can keep on taking, far into the... posted on Aug 27, 2286 reads

You Have to Raise the Sails
When Richard Whittaker received an email from a friend about a 'Beginning Acting for Adults,' class she was teaching, it gave him pause. Richard is founding editor of works&conversations magazine. He's been conducting deep-dive interviews with artists for over three decades."I'd never taken an acting class. And at 79 years old, why would I? It seemed a crazy idea. But on the other hand, why not? A... posted on Sep 7, 1794 reads

How Drawing Helps You Think
You don't have to be an artist to draw! Drawing is something all of us have successfully used with a pen or pencil on paper to plan, show or imagine what we are thinking. Being good art doesnt really matter as long as ideas are being shared. In this beautifully illustrated talk, Ralph Ammer shows how drawing your thoughts can be a powerful tool for improving your thinking, creativity and communica... posted on Sep 9, 2833 reads

Make Like A Neuron, Be As Connected As Possible
There are more neurons packed into the expansive confines of a human skull than there are human bodies jostling together on this swirling sphere we call Earth. How many neurons is that exactly? Dedicate a few billion of your own brain cells, if you will, to imagining the colorful millions of Calcutta; add to them the commuters careening through Bangkok, the campesinos picking coffee in Guatemala, ... posted on Sep 13, 1671 reads

Ama Torrance: Without a Recipe
"I'm not a traditionalist. I don't really stick with the rules of anything. I can't follow a recipe in a recipe book. I have to do it my way. So I get the basic tenets of how things work, you know. If you want to make banana bread you look at a bunch of recipes and figure out how everything works together and then you make it however you want to make it." Richard Whittaker's curiosity was piqued w... posted on Sep 26, 1433 reads

Tsunamika: The Little Doll Changing the World
"Fashion designer Uma Prajapati was sifting through emails at her office desk one sun-streaked afternoon in 2005, when a particular note caught her eye. It was from a young woman in Mumbai, India, who described her struggles with depression. At her lowest, she'd decided to end her life. The letter writer explained that as she was leaving her office for the last time, her eyes fell on a small scrap... posted on Sep 29, 2221 reads

Widening Circles: An Interview with Joanna Macy
"In this interview, Buddhist eco-philosopher and author Joanna Macy discusses her life and work. From her anti-nuclear activism in the late 60s to her work with deep ecology, Joanna expresses the need to live within an ethic of care for the earth."... posted on Sep 30, 1920 reads

The Value of Rethinking Our Deeply Held Beliefs
"Organizational psychologist and bestselling author Adam Grant examines the value of rethinking deeply-held beliefs in an ever-changing world. He discusses how that approach could reshape our work, politics, and daily discourse for the better." More from Grant in this interview with PBS.... posted on Oct 9, 2624 reads

A Country Called Childhood
"Every generation of children instinctively nests itself in nature, no matter how tiny a scrap of it they can grasp. In a tale of one city child, the poet Audre Lorde remembers picking tufts of grass which crept up through the cracks in paving stones in New York City and giving them as bouquets to her mother. It is a tale of two necessities. The grass must grow, no matter the concrete suppressing ... posted on Oct 6, 1791 reads

Beyond the Words
"This short film by Nic Askew of Soul Biographies has been called "the epitome of joy." Through the delightful presence of Feliciano Pop from Guatemala, we are asked to consider what language is beyond our simple understanding of words. Is there a language that we can all understand if we choose to listen and notice what is happening; if we pay attention with our heart? Prepare to smile and to sin... posted on Oct 14, 2078 reads