How do you manage the emotional pendulum in this work between very real sadness and very real joy? It’s very hard, but there are lots of reasons to allow yourself to be buffeted by those extremes. The most important one is because they are precisely the extremes that are our friends, patients, and co-workers have experienced directly. I think those staffing the global health apparatus could stand to be more battered by sadness, in fact. It's the bloodiness and bureaucratic nature of a lot of public health, the lack of proximity to patients, that probably spares the control-over-care paradigm from reform. Because people are just too distant from it. I don't think of ... posted on Dec 16 2020 (3,815 reads)

Cunningham has been at the helm of the battle for indigenous rights in Nicaragua for the past 20 years. She was among four activists on Thursday to receive the Right livelihood award, the alternative Nobel for peace, for her decades-long work. Lottie Cunningham’s voice is calm, her sentences paced by long pauses. In a style that reflects the lawyer that she is, the 61-year-old rights activist weighs every word she speaks: “As indigenous peoples, we have protected mother nature from generation to generation, like our grandparents taught us. And this has not only been for our own well-being, but also for everyone else’s. It is crucial that we preserve the balance... posted on Dec 30 2020 (2,660 reads)

the wake of disturbing recent events in America's capital, community leaders, activists, authors, artists and teachers are speaking up for justice and peace. Here we share timely reflections, resources and inspiration from various voices that DailyGood has featured over the years. Parker Palmer: Author, educator, activist Wed., Jan. 6, 2021, is now engraved in American history as yet another date that reveals how fragile our democracy is—and how strong. Like a KKK rally, the insurrection brought us face-to-face with an evil that has lived among and within too many Americans from the start of this country. Many have been laid low by this latest edition of u... posted on Jan 9 2021 (9,004 reads)

year will certainly go down in history—world history and personal history. We each have a story to tell about how the pandemic has affected us and those we know. One of good fortune is about staying safe and healthy; one of misfortune is about getting sick and dying. I am grateful that other aspects are not so dire, not so black and white. In some recent discussions with friends who are also creatives, I have heard a variety of responses to the question, “How has Covid-19 affected your creativity?” Mont Sainte-Victoire and the Viaduct of the Arc River Valley (1882-1885), by Paul Cézanne. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Source: commons.wikimedia.org/... posted on Jan 18 2021 (6,281 reads)

meets inspiration in this tale of nature's best hidden innovation: soil. 'The Soil Story',is a five-minute film that shares the importance of healthy soil for a healthy planet.  Learn how we can "sequester" (store) carbon from our atmosphere, where it is harmful, and pull it back into the earth, where it belongs, through regenerative agriculture, composting, and other land management practices. The film was directed in partnership with Louis Fox, best-known for the acclaimed viral series, 'The Story of Stuff'."  For more inspiration, join an Awakin Call with one of the film's creators, Ryland Engelhart, on 'Sacred Com... posted on Jan 22 2021 (5,882 reads)

be awkward, but for the sake of the context for the next question which is on mythology. In Rough Initiations, you say, “Many of the great myths begin in a time such as this. The land has become barren, the king corrupted, the ways of peace lost. It is in these conditions that a ripeness arises for radical change. It is a call to courage and humility. Every one of us will be affected by the changes wrought by this difficult visitation.” Can you talk about the mythological nature of this moment. FW: We always think our times are unique. Obviously, it has a quality of uniqueness now because of the scale of potential collapses, not just economic, but also planetar... posted on Feb 3 2021 (13,410 reads)

who speak in spiritual terms routinely refer to God as creator but seldom see "creator" as the literal term for "artist". I am suggesting you take the term "creator" quite literally. You are seeking to forge a creative alliance, artist-to-artist with the Great Creator. Accepting this concept can greatly expand your creative possibilities." --Julia Cameron, "The Artist's Way" Through a 'not-so-smart' smartphone mishap, the Universe tapped me on the shoulder recently and invited me into the Universal Flow of abundance and creativity. I'd meant to send a text message to a certain Julia I know, but my smartphone... posted on Feb 9 2021 (7,043 reads)

notes of how we thought about a particular problem, and our successes and failures, and the different steps we did. They've been conversations where there have been very few judgments. He's not afraid of my judgment-- where normally I would say, "Oh, why didn't you do that?" Now I don't say those kinds of things. I guess I always aspired to having this kind of a relationship with the kids. And of course, a few conversations doesn't necessarily change the nature of the relationship, but it's a really good shift. I think it's up to both me and him-- and more on and me as the adult to keep space for such conversations where we talk as buddie... posted on Mar 15 2021 (5,563 reads)

with others, such as making fire, cordage, tracking game, basket making, communal rituals, initiation and storytelling are what slowly gave shape to our psychic and communal lives. We have made these movements generation upon generation and now, in the barest wisp of a moment, we have stopped. What happens to our psyches, to our very beings, in the absence of these movements? What happens to our cultures in the absence of these sturdy and reliable rhythms? It appears entire areas of our nature remain inactivated. By extension, entire areas of the commons of right relations and good manners with the living world are also missing. These movements were highly engaged with the surroundin... posted on Mar 4 2021 (11,691 reads)

organised society the Machiavellis are one step ahead. They have the ultimate secret weapon to defeat their competition. They are shameless.” So much for the diagnosis; what about the cure? In the latter part of the book Bregman shares examples of organisations, political systems, schools, prisons and police forces that have shaped themselves around a positive view of humanity. In education, for example, play is a necessity in human development because we are born with playful natures, and children learn best when left to their own devices. In health, “According to the WHO, depression is now the number one global disease. Our biggest shortfall isn’t in a bank ac... posted on Mar 8 2021 (4,783 reads)

and full-color photos that reveal what feels like an alternate reality of a life often harsh, sometimes poetic, devoid of many of our modern luxuries and basic givens, from shiny digital gadgets to a permanent roof over one’s head. Since the beginning of time, nomadic people have roamed the earth. Looking for food, feeding their cattle. Looking for an existence, freedom. Living in the wild, mountains, deserts, on tundra and ice. With only a thin layer of tent between them and nature. Earth in the 21st century is a crowded place, roads and cities are everywhere. Yet somehow, these people hold on to traditions that go back to the very beginning of human civilization.” ... posted on Mar 28 2021 (5,520 reads)

— that even worrying — and I think that’s a personality type, too, and I fall into that sometimes. Somehow, that feels like you’re controlling it, like I am gonna bear down and think this through, and if I worry about it, the worst thing won’t happen. You say that that’s one of these inclinations we have that is counterproductive but feels so natural. Runyan:[laughs] Yes. We want to have control. That’s why the uncertainty, the unpredictable nature of this is so hard for us, physiologically. And as a mindfulness teacher and practitioner, I really work at this intersection, too, of metabolizing the reality that there is no control. [laughs... posted on Mar 30 2021 (14,188 reads)

the mistake. To behold a broken bird, fascinate on a free thing flightless. To squeeze a small fish, and quench a big appetite.  No one wants to think about the feeding, except the little girl in line who demands to know what crime deserves this, this dying, this dying, this dying slowly for a show.  The adults ignore her, but fish hears. fish prays she stops searching for reasons, fish prays she finds cruelty reason-less, fish prays she, big handed daughter of nature, mends this distortion. but the little girl decides she wants to stay in line. She rips fish flesh and prayer to feed the eagle, & the stranger asks why I went to prison, & bo... posted on Apr 2 2021 (6,000 reads)

become an instant cliche as the pandemic reveals the threadbare fabric of our culture: the truly essential people that make day-to-day life possible are often the ones in the most precarious and poorly paid jobs. As grateful as I am to have professional people in my life, I am utterly dependent on the people who grow, harvest, and distribute food. The people who stack grocery shelves and check us out. The people willing to shop for the elderly and immunocompromised. The people picking up our garbage, manning the water and sewer systems. And, of course, the health care workers. It doesn’t take a pandemic to tell us that our culture has its values and rewards upside down. B... posted on Apr 3 2021 (5,403 reads)

many agonising moments of truth to realise that no matter how hard we try, we may never know with certainty why our loved ones died the way they did. Healing begins with confronting and accepting this inconvenient truth. ‘Suicide can shatter many of the things you take for granted about yourself, your relationships and your world,’ writes John Jordan in After Suicide Loss: Coping with Your Grief. Among the many things that shatters is our perception of our loved one and the nature of our relationship with them. We are confronted with a harsh reality check: Did we really know our loved one at all? Or were we living with a stranger? Survivors of suicide loss are confron... posted on Apr 13 2021 (7,090 reads)

grace and poise becoming of a New Yorker, not with the ‘thickness’ of my own tongue. I sat in the front of every class, desperate to please my teachers, raising my hand at the slightest suggestion of a question. You see, I was convinced in ways that needed little or no articulation that if I got myself educated, I could rise above the debris of my own bells-and-whistles culture and take my place in the constellation of the worthy… and that if I understood the irrefutable nature of things, I could find unmovable ground upon which I could build a real future for myself. I remember responding to our pastor’s salvation call three times on a single Sunday. It was ... posted on Apr 25 2021 (6,913 reads)

the ramifications of climate change, combined with other ecological challenges, increase, finding and making beauty, and opening up to gratitude and compassion in the process, will become more and more important, more and more imperative. What are some of the barriers and obstacles faced by Radical Joy as it works toward its vision? Offering and image by Janet Keating. Dolly Sods Wilderness Area—a place once deeply wounded, but now transformed by loving intentions and nature’s resilience. Things have changed a lot during the past year in the way the world at large has responded to our work, our vision. In the past, some environmentalists would dismiss the ... posted on Apr 26 2021 (5,188 reads)

sense blinds us to the reality of the universe and Vladimir Nabokov’s admonition that it blunts our sense of wonder, Huxley writes: Common sense is not based on total awareness; it is a product of convention, or organized memories of other people’s words, of personal experiences limited by passion and value judgments, of hallowed notions and naked self-interest. Total awareness opens the way to understanding, and when any given situation is understood, the nature of all reality is made manifest, and the nonsensical utterances of the mystics are seen to be true, or at least as nearly true as it is possible for a verbal expression of the ineffable to be. ... posted on May 21 2021 (5,847 reads)

it is through poetry and with music. So let’s listen to another one. TS: OK. We’ll listen to a piece, this is called “Raggedness.” And this is also from Just Being Here: Rumi and Human Friendship. Maybe you can introduce it for us, Coleman. CB: Well, this is [about] lots of changes that happen in a student-teacher relationship. You’ll see, “I was dead, and then alive.” So it’s all about the continuous changing nature of a relationship, where maybe a teacher’s involved, but nobody knows who’s the student and who’s the teacher. It keeps changing back and forth. OK, let’s hear it. [M... posted on May 29 2021 (5,511 reads)

pay attention to and act quickly on something that the brains radar for threat thinks is extremely important. Or the brains circuitry for motivation thinks is extremely important. So, our worst emotions, the ones that make us do things we might regret later, like anger or panic are signs that the brain’s radar for threat, which is called the amygdala has detected something that it thinks is going to harm us in some way. This design worked very well when the brain was being designed by nature, in human prehistory when we lived on the savanna, the jungle, and really sucks now that we live in a complex social reality. So, we have this biological reaction, the fight or flight response,... posted on Jun 28 2021 (5,795 reads)