its inception in 1970, Earth Day marks a global celebration of Earth and the concept of peace. It presents an opportunity to demonstrate support for environmental protection. From lush rain forests to arid deserts, thundering waterfalls to serene ponds, majestic glaciers to craggy mountains and teeming coral reefs, Earth is a complex, interconnected planet, filled with diversity and abundance. New species continue to be discovered, and the relationships among species and ecosystems are increasingly revealed in our understanding as intricate and inextricably linked. To be tenants of Planet Earth is a cause for gratitude, but we also have responsibilities to maintain and protect our plan... posted on Apr 18 2017 (11,771 reads)

powerful music video arrives just in time for the millions of students around the world preparing for the milestone of graduation. Written by be-the-change rapper Nimo Patel, animated by the Superfruit Collective (a team of animators based in France), featuring a chorus of amazing Filipino students from the Metta Assumption College, and excerpts from a graduation speech by ServiceSpace founder Nipun Mehta -- this music video is a global labor-of-love collaboration between resonant hearts. Whether you are graduating this year or not, the simple, profound messages of this song, the compelling animation, and the warmth behind all of it are sure to brighten your day.&n... posted on May 4 2017 (27,896 reads)

is more important: your spouse or your Facebook friends? A social psychologist says we need both, for weak ties can make us strong—and sometimes strong ties can make us weak. Do we live in an age of superficial social ties, incapable of genuine human connection? Our Facebook friends may seem to do little more than bombard us with trivial status updates. Texting, chatting, and tweeting appear to have dumbed down our conversations to quick, shallow exchanges. There’s no question that the digital age has changed the way we relate to one another, sometimes to our detriment, as MIT psychologist Sherry Turkle has argued in her book Alone Together. Though many of us can coun... posted on Sep 6 2017 (7,516 reads)

still don't know how beautiful Nature is, there are a lot of things we don't understand totally. I feel our understanding will be higher when it's collective. When more and more people have this understanding, we will be able to see more gifts Nature has ready for us. -- Joserra Gonzalez Jose Ramon Gonzalez (“Joserra”) is a service-hearted generosity entrepreneur, meditator, and activist for the common good. He is also the founder of "ReLoveUtion" -- a renaissance of compassionate societies. What follows is an edited transcript of an Awakin Call interview with Joserra, moderated by Rina Patel. You can read the full transcript or listen to the ... posted on Jul 21 2017 (8,793 reads)

was either Donna Billick or Diane Ullman, the founders of the Art and Science Fusion project at UC Davis who mentioned Meredith May to me. It was four years ago. We were probably standing out in their pollinators garden at UCD.  “Just yesterday a reporter from the San Francisco Chronicle was up here. She keeps bees on the roof of the Chronicle building.” The image of bee hives on the roof of the Chronicle building in downtown SF captured me. I wanted to meet this reporter and asked for her name. It was Meredith May.  As Meredith said, “The best interview I ever did came out of that!” And thanks to the connection, she sent me a note when her first bo... posted on Oct 10 2017 (7,417 reads)

the nomadic community of Narikuravars in Tamil Nadu, the only mode of livelihood comes from selling beads on streets or worse, begging. Amidst the various ostracised communities in the state, Narikuravars are a marginalised group who continue to be shunned from mainstream society and have no access to primary opportunities like that of education and employment. However, one young boy’s perseverance in making the world a better place for his community has not just earned him the tag of being the flag bearer of the Narikuravars, but also the nomination for this year’s International Peace Prize for Children. He has achieved this by con... posted on Apr 29 2018 (10,678 reads)

is the telling of a myth part of that? MS: The thing that distinguishes oral storytelling from, say, modern novels or theatre, is that the listener has to do an awful lot of work. Good storytelling is a skeletal activity and what is happening in a room is a hundred people are leaning forward, because their imagination is having to work very hard to conjure flesh out of the wider story. Even listening to stories is not a passive experience. You are meeting the energy of the teller and the images within the story, so the energy is triangulate. CDC: Do you think mythology plays a particular role now in a world which is becoming increasingly fragmented and meaningless? MS: Y... posted on May 13 2018 (7,712 reads)

SCOLARO: So I wanted to begin by asking you what thoughts you’ve been having lately. What’s been on your mind? PICO IYER: Well, after a very crowded and congested year, I’ve managed to steal the last two weeks in almost absolute silence here in Japan. So I suppose I’ve been thinking about the folly of knowing, the virtue of seeing how little we know, and the beauty of just taking a deep breath. Which I’ve written about before, but I haven’t always practised! I’m getting to spend just a few days reading, writing, taking long walks, playing ping-pong every day. And sitting on my terrace in the blazing November sunshine, usually with a cu... posted on May 11 2018 (12,514 reads)

in 1979 in Belgium to a Turkish father and a Swedish mother, Filiz Emma Soyak knew by the age of five that visual art was her calling and way of expression. Her heritage, travels and wanderlust provide continuous inspiration and perspective. Motherhood changed her world and signified a major shift in her work to a more mindful practice and a conscious approach. More than ever now she reflects awareness about living in the present. Unu Spiro translates to ‘one breath’ in Esperanto, a language designed to unite, and one in which everything is rooted in the present. I began my one breath paintings as a meditative practice to appreciate the present mome... posted on Jun 8 2018 (11,309 reads)

occur in life. Challenges arise for all of us. The beauty of it all is that these struggles are something which, if attended to, can deeply connect us. Think for a moment about whatever may currently be bringing some difficulty in your life. Perhaps these challenges are manifesting in any or all of the physical, relational, survival or emotional realms. Your experience is perhaps not very easy, but I do have good news for you! You aren’t alone. Some of us have moments in time when everything may seem to be on track, but that is a pretty rare occurrence for most everyone. The universality of this “affliction” hit me while driving recently on Highway 1 ... posted on Sep 6 2018 (10,103 reads)

the disappeared under Pinochet’s regime in Chile, and diapers and headscarves made by Argentina’s Mothers of Plaza de Mayo. Even the legendary abolitionist Sojourner Truth engaged in knitting and needlework as a form of resistance. Greer comes from a military family, so the war in Afghanistan affected her personally, with a cousin and a friend who served there. In the mid-2000s, she began a needlework series based on anti-war graffiti from around the world. Taking anonymous images—a bomb as a head on a human body, the Statue of Liberty holding a missile instead of a torch—and working them in cross-stitch, she illustrated the effects and toll of war: “Ho... posted on Jan 10 2019 (11,449 reads)

of his belt seemed as long to him as a monkey’s tail. His belly was concave under his shirt. Here in Iburayaeveryone’s clothes looked better than his. He started walking. Looking around for a sign with a luggage symbol on it, he came to a corridor with a glassed-in wall. He glanced out, then stopped and stared. There were green fields out there in the distance, and on those fields cows were grazing. From this far away, they might have been his family’s herd. His last images of cows were of murdered and suffering animals – decapitated cows and cows with their front legs chopped off, still alive and bellowing by the sides of the road to Bujumbura and even in B... posted on Oct 8 2020 (4,602 reads)

or perspective for the “correct” answers. Their experiences, thoughts and feelings are valid. Hear their anger and hurt. You can encourage respectful disagreement while also maintaining a safe space for vulnerable populations. Put strong discussion guidelines in place and stick to them. Don’t be shocked by student responses, learn to question and talk them through their feelings instead. 2. ANALYZE POWERFUL MEDIA IMAGES & LANGUAGE TOGETHER. Take time to analyze images and language that are in the news, with students. Ask what kind of images they’re seeing, labels they’ve heard. This helps to draw out their questions, fears and misconceptions. Are... posted on Jan 13 2021 (6,446 reads)

and photograph by Kripa Singan Each dawn, millions of Tamil women create intricate, geometric, ritual-art designs called 'kolam,' at the thresholds of their homes, as a tribute to Mother Earth and an offering to Goddess Lakshmi. A Tamil word that means beauty, form, play, disguise or ritual design-- a kolam is anchored in the Hindu belief that householders have a karmic obligation to "feed a thousand souls." By creating the kolam with rice flour, a woman provides food for birds, rodents, ants and other tiny life forms -- greeting each day with 'a ritual of generosity', that blesses both the household, and the greater community. Kolams are a deliberately tra... posted on May 20 2021 (18,039 reads)

a 1995 trip to Peru, Jolanda van den Berg's heart was captured by the street children of Cusco. Roughly six months later she left her home in Amsterdam and moved to Cusco for good. Jolanda is the founder of the Ninos Unidos Peruanos Foundation and the Ninos Hotel in Peru. Over the last 25 years, her work has reached thousands of vulnerable children in and around Cusco through a network of community centers, funded by her three highly acclaimed hotels in Cusco. Six years ago, in the immediate aftermath of a traumatic event, Jolanda experienced a profound sense of dissolution of identity. Outwardly the shape of her life and work stayed mu... posted on Oct 15 2021 (4,890 reads)

many years, I wondered what it really meant to ‘follow one’s heart’. I was very curious to know what it felt like. I was certain it would be extraordinary, with an air of mystery. Something lofty and noble, a higher purpose. It would be a dramatic turning point after which all the pieces of the puzzle would fall neatly in place. I would no longer feel torn, there would be no guilt or self-doubt, no more bad decisions, and no future-anxiety. I was convinced it would bring clarity and peace, joy, fulfillment and perhaps, success. All the good stuff. I finally found my calling around my forty-second birthday, but it wasn’t quite what I had imagined. Just when... posted on Jul 13 2022 (4,099 reads)

something an irate wizard might inflict on you but are in reality simply hotspots of collagen fibers. The dark spots that look like tiny black holes in a small galaxy are Nevi and the product of a localized increase in pigment production. And no I am not making any of this up. Cross my heart, hope to fly. A Google search might tell you that iris recognition is “an automated method of biometric identification that uses mathematical pattern-recognition techniques on video images of one or both of the irises of an individual’s eyes, whose complex patterns are unique, stable and can be seen from some distance.” You may also learn that there are now sever... posted on Apr 24 2023 (3,268 reads)

Sue Cochrane's website is a button that says "Click Here for Unconditional Love"- it leads to a selection of writings that offer exactly that. It isn't just the words of Sue's stories that touch the reader, but the wordless energy behind them. Sue Cochrane survived a traumatic childhood to become a pioneering family court judge. Throughout her career she strived to put the heart back into the body of the law. Her first stark cancer diagnosis came when her three adopted sons were little more than babies. In the eighteen years that followed, Sue lived and loved through a series of profoundly serious diagnoses, including Stage IV breast cancer, and a brain tumor that wa... posted on Oct 31 2023 (55,046 reads)

me may work, may not work. And then it may be the statement, the reminder, “Oh, yes, I have an anchor in ventral. I can reach for that anchor.” And you can’t see me, but I usually reach. I extend my arm reaching for my anchor. So lots of different ways. What would you do? What would be a way that you would? TS: Well, in reading your book Anchored and in trying to become more knowledgeable about returning to ventral, what came up for me were a couple of images of everyday real experiences I have in my life when I definitely feel anchored in connection. So I was like, this is a for-sure one. So one of them is petting the belly of one of our two dog... posted on Nov 12 2023 (5,563 reads)

my therapist would say, “Well, what do you want to do today?” I'm like, “Oh, I don't know, watercolors. I'm doing good today.” I’d start painting and five minutes later, the tears were rolling. It was like it – it bypassed that part of my brain that wanted it to be all logical and explain it all. I'm sure you can explain that much better, but it was just so powerful.  She, the art therapist, taught me how to do art journaling. With the images, it really helped me connect in with my intuition and with my writing. I work a lot with images, with dreams. So it all just flowed together.    Pat: Did you find that you got som... posted on Nov 20 2023 (3,030 reads)