Water of Life
"In a landscape where nothing is certain and old patterns of control tighten their grip, Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee urges us to leave behind that which no longer nourishes us and work with the Earth toward a living future."... posted on Oct 22, 2214 reads

Dear Vaccine: Pandemic Poetry
"A new poetry anthology called Dear Vaccine: Global Voices Speak to the Pandemic illuminates how people around the world have experienced COVID-19. Jeffrey Brown sits down with Naomi Shihab Nye, an author, editor and current Young Peoples Poet Laureate, to talk about shaping the book and the outpouring of interest from people who dont necessarily identify as poets."... posted on Oct 24, 2017 reads

The Art of Life: A Documentary
"The Art of Life is a documentary about the art of living outside of conventions, in deep integrity with one's essence. As a rising star in the field of abstract mathematics, Michael Behrens discovered that he could see beauty and pattern where others could not. But his path was not to be inside academia, or even inside society. He went on a grand adventure to unify his Buddhism with his ability t... posted on Oct 25, 3664 reads

Love Song
"Whether we accept it or not, the land itself is our earliest predecessor, the main character of all our stories, and listening to it, after all, is not a onetime undertaking but a practice." Chris Dombrowski's book, "The River You Touch," begins with a profound and timely question, "What does a meaningful, mindful, sustainable inhabitance on this small planet look like in the anthropocene? What f... posted on Nov 2, 1985 reads

The Woman Who Saved Native Song
"In the early twentieth century, the U.S. government continued its assault on Native Americans by demanding they relinquish their tribal languages and belief systems, teach their children English, and enter the American mainstream. As a result of this concerted erasure campaign, the average American came to see indigenous peoples as living fossils on the brink of cultural extinction. Frances Densm... posted on Nov 10, 3772 reads

Why You Should Write That Thank You Note
"Students of mine in a political philosophy course at Indiana University are reading Daniel Defoe's 300-year-old Robinson Crusoe, often regarded as the first novel published in English. Marooned alone on an unknown island with no apparent prospect of rescue or escape, Crusoe has much to lament. But instead of giving in to despair, he makes a list of things for which he is grateful, including the f... posted on Nov 13, 5179 reads

Agent of Illumination
"Some years ago, I was stuck on a crosstown bus in New York City during rush hour. Traffic was barely moving. The bus was filled with cold, tired people who were deeply irritated with one another, with the world itself. Two men barked at each other about a shove that might or might not have been intentional. A pregnant woman got on, and nobody offered her a seat. Rage was in the air; no mercy woul... posted on Nov 16, 14365 reads

How to Have a Community Conversation
"A Community Conversation is a form of group dialogue that often addresses issues of local or larger concern. Participation is usually open to all, and may lead to some form of action, consensus or objective by the participants. Regardless of the size of the gathering, when individuals assemble to engage in dialogue related to self-determination, it often becomes a community unto itself. Community... posted on Nov 19, 1482 reads

You Don't Know What Your Future Self Wants
"'You are constantly becoming a new person,' says journalist Shankar Vendantam. In a talk full of beautiful storytelling, he explains the profound impact of something he calls the "illusion of continuity" -- the belief that our future selves will share the same views, perspectives and hopes as our current selves -- and shows how we can more proactively craft the people we are to become." Science w... posted on Dec 3, 2816 reads

Thanksgiving Blessings
From the team at Gratefulness.org comes this rich compilation of, "blessings, prayers, and invocations from diverse traditions, for meal times, gatherings, and Grateful Living." ... posted on Nov 24, 2180 reads

The Queen of Basketball
This amazing film, winner of the 2022 Academy Award for Best Documentary (short subject), shares the story of Lusia "Lucy" Harris, a pioneer of women's basketball. Harris talks of her love of basketball from childhood with her characteristic good humor and humility. Criticized for her height, basketball helped her to view that as an asset. She led her college team to three national women's basketb... posted on Dec 2, 1376 reads

James Bridle: An Ecological Technology
"In this expansive interview, writer, artist, and technologist James Bridle seeks to widen our thinking beyond humancentric ways of knowing. In questioning our fundamental assumptions about intelligence, they explore how radical technological models can decentralize power and become portals into a deeper relationship with the living world."... posted on Dec 13, 1504 reads

The Heartbeat of Trees
Peter Wohllenben is a forester in the best sense of the word. He is the author of a number of books, including The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate -- Discoveries from a Secret World, which was a New York Times bestseller. His latest book, The Heartbeat of Trees: Embracing Our Ancient Bonds with Forests and Nature, was released in June 2021. In this interview he speaks ab... posted on Dec 18, 2345 reads

Carol Sanford: No More Feedback
"I will admit from the start that this is a contrarian view of a subject that I love to hate: Feedback. People are often shocked that I would critique something that they think must be good for them and certainly good for others, no matter how much they dislike participating in it. After all, without feedback, how would we know how others see us? How would we get better at what we do? My answer to... posted on Dec 20, 2185 reads

Bill Plotkin: The Butterfly and the Cocoon
"'The world is not well tended or engaged with by people who dont know what they are for, who dont know why they were born.' Steve Wheeler speaks with depth psychologist and wilderness guide Bill Plotkin about the metamorphoses of the soul in times of ecological crisis."... posted on Dec 21, 2242 reads

New Year Transformation: Resources for the Journey
"The New year often brings with it a welcome sense of possibility as we bid farewell to the old and embrace the potential of what's to come. Even as global challenges continue to contribute to a sense of heightened uncertainty, opportunity awaits when we situate ourselves in gratefulness. May this collection of resources help to support you in welcoming the new year with wholehearted curiosity, hu... posted on Jan 1, 2583 reads

Otto Scharmer on The Four Levels of Listening
"In my years of working with groups and organizations, I have identified four basic types of listening. Ya, I know that already. The first type of listening is downloading: listening by reconfirming habitual judgments. When you are in a situation where everything that happens confirms what you already know, then you are listening by downloading." In this excerpt from his book, "Theory U: Learning ... posted on Jan 5, 2967 reads

Letter to Tomorrow
An egg; a perfect package of hope. Sit down and allow your heart to open; allow your mind to quiet. Then connect with this beautiful poem by Jackie Morris and ponder how to hold your own hope.... posted on Jan 6, 3303 reads

Into the Middle of Nowhere
"This film captures the wonder of childhood as 3 to 5-year-olds explore and test the boundaries of reality through play and imagination at an outdoor nursery in Fife, Scotland."... posted on Jan 11, 2340 reads

Window of Possibility
"We call our galaxy the Milky Way. There are at least 100 billion stars in it and our sun is one of those. A hundred billion is a big number, and humans are not evolved to appreciate numbers like that, but heres a try: If you had a bucket with a thousand marbles in it, you would need to procure 999,999 more of those buckets to get a billion marbles. Then youd have to repeat the process a hundred t... posted on Jan 14, 2129 reads

What Does Justice for Animals Look Like
"Should a hummingbird be able to be a plaintiff in court? According to philosopher Martha Nussbaum, the answer is yes. In her new book, Justice for Animals: Our Collective Responsibility, the distinguished professor of law and philosophy at the University of Chicago offers a new theory of animal justice that is meant to inform our law and policy. Her theory is based on the "capabilities approach,"... posted on Jan 18, 2715 reads

Creatures that Don't Conform
"In the woods near her home, Lucy Jones discovers the magic of slime molds and becomes entangled in their fluid, nonbinary way of being. Lying at the edge of our understanding, slime molds invite us into their mystery and remind us of the vast possibilities of life on Earth."... posted on Feb 5, 5018 reads

Emotional Reappraisal: A Form of Creativity
"Everyday examples of creativity are plentiful: combining leftover food to make a tasty new dish, coming up with a new way to accomplish chores, mixing old outfits to create a new look. Another way you do this is when you practice whats called 'emotional reappraisal' -- viewing a situation through another lens to change your feelings. There is an element of creativity to this: You're breaking away... posted on Feb 7, 3545 reads

On Writing More Clearly
"Here, in short, is what I want to tell you.

Know what each sentence says,

What it doesn't say,

And what it implies.

Of these, the hardest is knowing what each sentence actually says."

Verlyn Klinkenborg teaches creative writing at Yale and is a former member of the editorial board of the New York Times, he shares more in ... posted on Mar 14, 2637 reads

The Framed Infinite
"I believe windows are celebrated in direct proportion to the degree one is conscious of circumscription. For those who live a seemingly free range existence, oblivious of external limits, the windows presence and function is assumed. Simultaneously looked through-- and overlooked. Unregistered as the pattern of curtains in a neighbors home, or the direction of the thieving wind that rifles casual... posted on Sep 6, 2638 reads

Barbara McAfee: Voice as Vocation
A master voice coach, author, and singer/songwriter, Barbara McAfee has worked 25+ years midwiving voices across thresholds. Whether it is an individual seeking to express deep truth, or a group looking to embrace its power, she guides them on an intimate journey to find their unique voice, sound by primal sound. Your voice is how you get the gift inside of you out. Nothing much happens in the wor... posted on Apr 28, 2736 reads

Rustling Roots: Engaging Ecological Education
Is there a place in today's society where you can live in harmony with the Earth? How far would you have to travel to find it? Rustling Roots lies hidden inside Louisa County, VA, close to Charlottesville, Richmond, and Washington, DC and within 500 miles of half of the US population. There you can find a community striving to live in peace with the world around them.... posted on Apr 29, 1497 reads

Early Music: Three Poems
"My name is Micheal O'Suilleabhain, I am a poet, singer, teacher and guide from Ireland. These three poems are from my collection Early Music. Each are a reflection on change, presence and inspiration in our lives. May they help you find the still point in your life today as we search for the daily good. Love from Ireland."
... posted on May 11, 5114 reads

Radiant Thinking
"This book is structured a little like a garden in which the seeds have been broadcast in wide spirals. There is an insistence on the relationship between all of the subjects within it: motherhood, climate collapse, social justice, botanical history, but also a commitment (at least as I see it) to a kind of disorder, a refusal to manage (or manhandle) the topics in relation to each other, but to l... posted on May 10, 1237 reads

India's Intrepid Women Seaweed Divers
"Early on a warm February morning, a group of ten women, ranging in age from 50 to 60, sit on the sandy shores of Akkal Madam beach on India's Pamban Island, carefully bandaging their fingers. Wearing colorful blouses and saris, they wind thick strips of cloth over each digit and secure the ends with string. It takes them over 20 minutes.The bandages, they've found, are the best way to protect han... posted on Jun 4, 2069 reads

How to Make Stress Your Friend
Stress. It makes your heart pound, your breathing quicken and your forehead sweat. But while stress has been made into a public health enemy, research suggests that stress may only be bad for you if you believe that to be the case. Psychologist Kelly McGonigal urges us to see stress as a positive, and introduces us to an unsung mechanism for stress reduction: reaching out to others. She shares mor... posted on Jun 7, 25854 reads

Saving Sea Turtles in the Solomon Islands
The Arnavons, a group of four of the Solomon Islands, are home to the largest nesting site of hawksbill turtles in the South Pacific. Around 1200 hawksbill turtles, named for their narrow heads and sharp beaks, lay eggs here every year. Unfortunately, despite their international protected status, people still hunt them for their flesh and beautiful shells, as well as harvesting their eggs for food... posted on Jun 9, 915 reads

Advice from Teens on Social Media Use
"'What advice would you give to young people who are new to social media?' 'Have you ever felt like you need to change your social media use...?'Teens and young adults from across the country answered these questions in a text survey in 2020. Their answers are eye-opening. 'I would tell young people ... the internet is far off from reality and the more time you spend on it, the more you forget wha... posted on Jun 12, 2077 reads

Notes on Complexity
Neil Theise is a diagnostic liver pathologist, adult stem cell researcher, complexity theorist, and practicing Zen Buddhist. His book, Notes on Complexity: A Scientific Theory of Connection, Consciousness, and Being is,"an electrifying introduction to complexity theory, the science of how complex systems behave, that explains the interconnectedness of all things." Read on for five key insights fro... posted on Jun 11, 3299 reads

10 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Ice
"1. Despite more than 150 years worth of study and experimentation, no one really knows why ice is slippery." Amy Brady is Orion magazine's executive director and the author of 'Ice: From Mixed Drinks to Skating RinksA cool history of a hot commodity.' She shares more in this engaging ten-point piece about a facet of modern life many of us take entirely for granted.... posted on Jun 10, 1923 reads

The Practice of Tsundoku & Why You May Want to Adopt It
"Many readers buy books with every intention of reading them only to let them linger on the shelf. Statistician Nassim Nicholas Taleb believes surrounding ourselves with unread books enriches our lives as they remind us of all we don't know. The Japanese call this practice tsundoku, and it may provide lasting benefits..." Read on for more on the intriguing concept of the 'antilibrary, the benefits... posted on Jun 17, 2948 reads

4 Reasons to Cultivate Patience
As virtues go, patience is a quiet one. It's often exhibited behind closed doors, not on a public stage: A father telling a third bedtime story to his son, a dancer waiting for her injury to heal. In public, it's the impatient ones who grab all our attention: drivers honking in traffic, grumbling customers in slow-moving lines. We have epic movies exalting the virtues of courage and compassion, bu... posted on Jun 28, 24225 reads

Fumi Imamura's Floral Works
" What interests me about the plant world is that plants have no cranial nerves and relate to the world as open internal organs. I came to know this as the idea of the anatomist Shigeo Miki. The novelist Kyusaku Yumeno said that 'the brain is not a place to think', while Shigeo Miki said that 'the brain is merely a mirror reflecting the internal organs'. We tend to think that the brain is the esse... posted on Aug 17, 1561 reads

Instructions for Traveling West
"Somewhere in the middle of the pandemic, I started driving west. The instinct was as startling as it was insatiable. I lapped up skylines like honey after famine. Then came six weeks of climbing mountains, avoiding clients and swallowing as much sunshine as I could. One morning in the middle of Arizona, I sat down with my laptop. A desert hummingbird--its whole body, the shape of a shining comma,... posted on Jul 6, 8492 reads

Forests Need Its People to Survive
B. Siddan, known as the Birdman of Bokkapuram, has an expert knowledge of birds in his region of India. He enthusiastically shares his love of birds in this short video, proudly introducing them by name like the old friends that they have become after his many years of bird watching. One such bird friend, a spot-bellied eagle owl, looks down knowingly on him. In holistic conservation, which B. des... posted on Jul 8, 1208 reads

Never the Same River Twice
""Before I arrived in Japan, I was intoxicated by its tradition of wandering poets. They weren't roaming around lakes and hills like Wordsworth, but proceeding along a rough, pointed path, in the way of Matsuo Basho. His most famous work--Narrow Road to the Interior--could suggest both the remote areas of northern Japan through which he was walking, and the inner terrain that the act of walking wo... posted on Jul 13, 1961 reads

The Donkey & the Meaning of Eternity: A Love Letter to Life
"Beneath our anxious quickenings, beneath our fanged fears, beneath the rusted armors of conviction, tenderness is what we long for -- tenderness to salve our bruising contact with reality, to warm us awake from the frozen stupor of near-living. Tenderness is what permeates Platero and I (public library) by the Nobel-winning Spanish poet Juan Ramon Jimenez (December 23, 1881-May 29, 1958) -- part ... posted on Jul 25, 4354 reads

When Elves Took Over an Abandoned Gas Station
"I'm a sucker for enchantment, , especially when it arises from unlikely places. By a year and a half into the pandemic in the fall of 2021, I had become increasingly frustrated by the incursion of scientific measurement into daily life, from never-ending COVID testing to forehead thermometer readings. As valuable as such tools can be, I longed for my daily life to be filled with more of the unqua... posted on Jul 30, 2533 reads

A Case for the Porch
"Lately I've been trying to think like a porch. Trying to think between the natural and the human. Thinking how best to build during a climate crisis. I came across John Cage saying that progress in art may be listening to nature. He thought this activity could best play out on a porch, where we can hear natures symphony and then breathe our own masterpieces. Can we play our porches like instrumen... posted on Aug 12, 1977 reads

The Spiritual Awakening of a World-Class Drunk
"In 1940, Bill Wilson, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, a man who knew sin and failure like he knew the back of his hand, was living with his wife, Lois, in a tiny room at the Alcoholics Anonymous "clubhouse" in downtown Manhattan. Wilson was in despair, unsure of the state of his soul, of his role in life, and of the future of A.A. Just then, at his nadir, a Jesuit priest from S. Louis, Father... posted on Aug 2, 6931 reads

Cultivating Wisdom: The Power of Mood
Do you believe that what you see influences how you feel? Actually, the opposite is true: What you feel - your "affect" -- influences all our senses -- what you see, hear, smell, taste, and touch. Psychologist and neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett shares the groundbreaking discovery that you experience the world through affect-colored glasses. She also reveals how affect can be a source of wisdo... posted on Aug 4, 2428 reads

Creating a Healthier Sense of Attribution
"At the heart of attribution theory is the question of control, or what factors contribute to outcomes: internal factors within our control (often referred to as dispositional) and external factors (also called situational or contextual) that are outside our control. Generally speaking, we often succumb to "fundamental attribution error," which is a tendency to overemphasize the role of internal f... posted on Aug 5, 2919 reads

The Great Animal Orchestra
Your imagination does the work at The Great Animal Orchestra -- you just sit in a dark room and listen...the exhibition immerses visitors into soundscapes from remote parts of the planet: seven of them, from the tropics to the tundra. No wildlife footage accompanies this symphony of wild animals. It's audio first, in a visually overstimulating world. "The basic message is that the soundscapes of t... posted on Aug 22, 2001 reads

Eight Steps Towards Forgiveness
"No matter who you are, you have undoubtedly experienced hurt in your life. And oftentimes, that hurt is compounded by the fact that you do not have the tools necessary to offer forgiveness, and thus begin the healing process that is critical to moving on with your life. In this succinct essay, Robert Enright offers a path to help move us towards forgiveness."
... posted on Aug 27, 38622 reads

Is Our Attention for Sale?
"Even though the internet and the world wide web were designed to decentralize information, our attention is increasingly and calculatedly controlled by a small number of sources whose sole aim is make money from where we place our attention. Learn why the "attention economy" demand our active resistance."... posted on Aug 30, 1918 reads