told the officer, "The amount you have quoted would require me take out 4 women and 6 of these kids and put them back on the streets. Can you tell me which ones you would like me to take out?" Within 3 weeks the government permission was with her. She didn't shame them, or embarass them, but gently and skilfully ignited their compassion for the future of these 4 women and 6 kids. She has helped awaken not just these officers, but so many others like you and I. Sister Lucy's work has garnered so many awards -- Nari Shakti award, Vanitha, Women of the Year in 2016, and so many more -- but lovingly, people call her, "Mother Teresa of Pune."    &n... posted on Jul 1 2017 (12,150 reads)

too late; when I am washing them the next day. I place my mother’s alarmingly large red sticker pottus approximately where I feel the center of my eyebrows must be and I hope for the best. My hair is an awkward untie-able length. I feel a little guilty as I ride in my auto rickshaw to class alone . In just a few hours, this very auto will be filled with six adorable, freshly bathed and laundered schoolchildren, smelling of face powder, coconut oil, and jasmine. This was how I went to work in Chennai for years, alone, half-awake, not really wanting to go, but now traveling from my mother’s house into the sleepy old town, it seems extravagant, selfish.  The sides of the r... posted on Feb 2 2018 (6,204 reads)

reason, it still has a lot of residual value.” She points to Phillips as a good example. “Phillips will take not just outdated, but also faulty or broken parts, and entire products — medical imaging equipment, for instance — restore them to good-as-new-condition, and then redeploy them to the market.” These remanufactured products appeal to smaller hospitals that cannot always afford the newest and best equipment but cannot accept anything that is not in good working order. Caterpillar is another leader in remanufacturing: 65% of the company’s costs are generated by materials, giving it a strong incentive to fully embrace the concept. Through its ... posted on Jul 18 2017 (7,065 reads)

takes a three-pronged approach to help every kid reach their potential. Elisabeth Stock has always been driven to work toward a more just world. It was what led her to volunteer as a teacher for the Peace Corps in West Africa in her early 20s, and it’s what ultimately motivated her to found PowerMyLearning, an educational technology nonprofit, in 1999. “I wanted to join the Peace Corps because I felt like there was this deep unfairness in society,” she says. “Is it just and fair that where you are born predicts whether you can reach your human potential?” The key to providing equal opportunity for everyone, says Stock, is through educa... posted on Jul 30 2017 (68,692 reads)

dying, it exists here and now. Death is not waiting for us at the end of a long road. Death is always with us, in the marrow of every passing moment. She is the secret teacher hiding in plain sight. She helps us to discover what matters most. And the good news is we don’t have to wait until the end of our lives to realize the wisdom that death has to offer. To imagine that at the time of our dying we will have the physical strength, emotional stability, and mental clarity to do the work of a lifetime is a ridiculous gamble.  And so, I want to extend an invitation—five invitations, actually—to sit down with death now, to have a cup of tea with her, to let her gui... posted on Aug 2 2017 (52,808 reads)

powerful. In the information age it’s tempting to think of the whole world as a story. If the world is a story then the perfect world is only a story away. We need only spin a message, an advert or campaign to bring about successful change. We all know of indigenous tribes whose worlds are shaped by the stories that they’ve heard, so we believe our own storytelling will shape society too. The trouble is that the kind of stories that are told in such societies are part of a network of mythology—not media to be consumed but realities that are lived. Such stories aren’t just heard; they are enacted through ritual. Listeners become participants in ways that shape a... posted on Sep 1 2017 (8,905 reads)

brother, husband, mother and sister, circa 2004 About seven-eight years ago, we were hosting a get-together at my parents home, and like most Punjabis (actually I think all :), she has a second stove set-up in the garage. I wish I'd kept to myself that day but I was trying to be of some help to her. We were running a bit behind schedule and she was just about finished with everything else, so now we just needed to make the rotis before the guests started arriving. I tried to work quickly, knowing that I was probably rushing her. As I was hurriedly moving everything closer to the table next to the stove, something happened that I wish I had the power to undo. The marble ch... posted on Nov 19 2017 (16,577 reads)

and the things I am grateful for. My role in the project was minimal. I proofread the English translation of the book, helping with the museum setup, and mostly just stood there to greet the occasional foreign guest and laugh at the crazy situations we found ourselves in. Nevertheless, the stories that I heard from “war children”–both in the context of the project and in my friends’ and sometimes even random acquaintances’ stories once they heard about my work on the museum–drastically changed the way I view the world, and the things I am grateful for. Before I moved to Bosnia, I was under the impression that stories of life during a war would... posted on Aug 1 2017 (7,232 reads)

Make contact with people whom you normally ignore—eye-contact at least—with the cashier at the supermarket, someone on the elevator, a beggar. Look a stranger in the eyes today and realize that there are no strangers. 4. Give someone an unexpected smile today You can feel either grateful or alienated, but never both at the same time. Gratefulness drives out alienation; there is not room for both in the same heart. When you are grateful you know that you belong to a network of give-and-take and you say “yes” to that belonging. This “yes” is the essence of love. You need no words to express it; a smile will do to put your “yes” int... posted on Aug 9 2017 (11,056 reads)

and experience peace. This was the peace I remembered as a child while standing by my mother’s side in the kitchen where we made peanut brittle together, canned tomatoes and washed dishes. It was the peace I felt sitting next to her in church.  It was the peace many others felt too as they would sit with her at the kitchen table, drinking endless cups of coffee as she would laugh and talk with visitors—anyone from my father’s legal clients, to neighborhood women, to the workmen fixing up our old house. All felt welcome in her kitchen. Traveling to France was a little like trying to find that peace again. The irony of course, in traveling far to find inner peace, is t... posted on Jul 26 2017 (17,820 reads)

science writer, and naturalist Diane Ackerman offers in a beautiful poem titled “School Prayer,” originally published in her poetry collection I Praise My Destroyer (public library) and later included in her prose inquiry into the evolutionary and existential purpose of deep play. A great deal of Ackerman’s exquisite writing is devoted to celebrating science. (Carl Sagan, who was on her dissertation committee, was an ardent admirer of her work and once sent her radiant poems about the Solar System to Timothy Leary in prison.) With her poet’s heart and scientist’s mind, she approaches the question of spirituality f... posted on Sep 5 2017 (15,017 reads)

years before Transcendentalist grand dame Margaret Fuller (May 23, 1810–July 19, 1850) inspired the women’s suffrage movement and laid the foundation for modern feminism with her 1845 masterwork Woman in the Nineteenth Century, she published something very different in subject, though not in sensibility and spirit: Summer on the Lakes(public library | free ebook) — the record of her experiences and observations traveling westward from her native New England, among which are the most stunning literary portrait of Niagara Falls I’ve encountered and a sorrowful account of the fate of the displaced Native American tribes, with whom Fuller... posted on Aug 4 2017 (8,041 reads)

your deathbed and to write your own obituary. Another is to imagine your own funeral and the eulogies people might deliver. I prefer a more playful—yet still profound—version. Imagine yourself at a dinner party in the afterlife. Also present are all the other “yous” who you could have been if you made different choices. The you who walked out on your first job and followed your dream. The you who became an alcoholic. The you who put in the time to make your marriage work. You look around at these alternative selves. Some might seem smug or annoying, but others you might envy. The question is this: Are there any of these many yous who you would rather be or become... posted on Sep 9 2017 (15,967 reads)

would not be late for school, Old Uncle told me about his life. His words still bring up tears as well as smiles when I contemplate them ten years later. Old Uncle’s wife had passed away when their two children were still young. He made a living by riding tricycles, and raised the children on his own. His daughter gave up the opportunity to go to college so that the younger brother would have money to pursue his future. Later on, she became a nurse at a local hospital through her hard work. Stories were not only told, but gradually we became each other’s stories. Those memories are still clear. For each ride, Old Uncle was supposed to charge me five Chinese yuan, however, he ... posted on Aug 13 2017 (11,875 reads)

way in a sometimes challenging world.  Navigating life’s difficulties sometimes alters our perception of self-worth.  We discover that we don’t always receive the love and care we need.  We experience disappointment, failure and rejection.  There are times when we are not seen or heard or validated for who we are.   We begin to doubt ourselves and often perceive that we are unworthy.  Our perception of unworthiness affects our relationships, work, finances, and families.  Unworthiness causes stress depression, anger and fear.  It poisons our inner conversation.  The perception of our own unworthiness causes us to feel shame... posted on Sep 14 2017 (16,027 reads)

resettlement agencies, eventually reaching Robert Johnson, former executive director at the International Rescue Committee’s office in Seattle. The connection was both timely and fortuitous. The IRC was already considering locations for new offices to accommodate an increase in the refugees allowed into the United States, from 70,000 in Fiscal Year 2015to 85,000 in FY 2016. Johnson also knew the Missoula community well. He had been involved with the IRC’s work in Missoula with Hmong refugees at the beginning of his career and had visited Montana several times on fly-fishing trips. “We knew from experience that Missoula was a good town with a l... posted on Dec 30 2017 (8,392 reads)

and conservationists depend on citizens, usually without scientific training, to help keep tabs on the health of the parks. Glacier National Park offers opportunities to count mountain goats, pikas, and butterflies. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park needs volunteers to monitor plant blooming and collect other data on flora and fauna. 3. Restore History Passport in Time is a program sponsored by the U.S. Forest Service that connects volunteers with archaeologists and historians to work on public land projects. Volunteers can help with rock art restoration, archaeological excavations, and artifact curation. Projects can last anywhere from two days to several weeks and sometimes ... posted on Sep 3 2017 (6,182 reads)

and how I should be as a person. It’s easy to slip back into, “By now I should be free from these character traits that I don’t want! I thought they would be gone by now. I don’t like still seeing these in myself.” Viewed dispassionately, being free of these patterns is about as reasonable as my garden being free of weeds. My garden will never be weed free. It’s big and fertile and organic and it grows a lot. I can accept (but sometimes forget) that the work of weeding, inside and out, will never end. It’s an ongoing process. No big deal. Just do it!   ... posted on Sep 20 2017 (21,059 reads)

UK Actress Emma Watson became a UN Ambassador for Goodwill at the age of 24. When her speech for the HeforShe campaign went viral her passion for women's rights resonated with advocates around the world. Victor Ochan, Uganda Victor grew up surrounded by conflict in the Lira district in northern Uganda, but he chose to be a peace activist. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and is a UN Global Goals Ambassador. His organization, the African Youth Initiative Network (Ayinet), helps thousands of victims of the Ugandan civil war get treatment and overcome the traumas of the war. Nino Nanitashvili, Georgia Nino has dedicated her career to peacebuildi... posted on Nov 5 2017 (11,667 reads)

had planned to write this piece at our co-writer Robin Olsson's cafe Llama Lloyd, where he promotes sharing and biking, but the weather was so nice that we decided to relocate outdoors to Jubileumsparken, a wonderful public space the city has set up in the industrial part of Gothenburg called Frihamnen. Surrounded by a makerspace, a community garden, a boule court, an open sauna, a communal pool, and a book swapping booth, we felt this was the perfect place to work on this piece. As we were writing, people stopped by to chat about the collaborative movement and the newly opened makerspace where you can learn 3D-printing, among other things. This is the e... posted on Sep 16 2017 (10,614 reads)