35 Images of Kindness Within Conflict
This collection of photos showing everyday individuals standing for love in times of terrible violence will shake your spirit and open your heart. These acts of love suggest that "during times of conflict and political or religious civil unrest, the power of the human spirit's capacity for non-violent protest and kindness still shines through."... posted on Sep 17, 99260 reads

Mr. Wright's Law of Love
No one falls asleep in Jeffrey Wright's high school physics class. Exploding pumpkins, hovercrafts and an experiment involving a bed of nails, a cinder block and a sledgehammer, are some of the crazy stunts that keep the students enthralled. But it is Mr. Wright's experiences as a father of a special needs son, and his teachings about love, family, and the meaning of life that leave the deepest im... posted on Dec 1, 12090 reads

Teaching Our Children To Love Their Enemies
"Forgiveness can lead to understanding. Understanding plants the seeds for love." Loving our enemies may be one of the most difficult pearls of wisdom to live out in our day to day lives. It requires overcoming our fears, our egos, and our need to be right. This piece, that tells the story of one woman's compassionate response to a band of young neighborhood pranksters, reminds us of how powerful ... posted on Mar 14, 18999 reads

Saturday In New York With Gitanjali
Gitanjali Babbar is a curious spirit who is gently shaking the world with her selfless service. As the founder of "Kat-Katha" in Delhi, she is bringing community and love to the otherwise bleak existence of sex-trafficked women, their families, and even brothel owners. The community is growing strong and volunteers are pouring in. But, during her recent visit to Manhattan, she told writer Tracy Co... posted on Jun 30, 10491 reads

A Classroom With Love At The Center
Peggy Sia has some remarkable fifth grade moments. "One morning, as we were discussing the meaning of resilience, a student recalled something his coach said to the team during a practice. The things one chooses to do that others will not do today, will enable one to do the things that others cannot do tomorrow. Such powerful words coming from that of a 10-year-old." Every day, they move her to ri... posted on Feb 27, 19646 reads

David Whyte on the True Meaning of Friendship, Love & Heartbreak
After a certain age, words flow from us, often without a second thought. So how can we come back into a conscious relationship with some of the most common words in our language? How can we return with fresh eyes to words like love and friendship? Poet David Whyte dives deeply into these terms, and encourages us to return to their visceral truths.... posted on May 12, 30970 reads

Seeds: A Story of Uncommon Change
Discover the story of Aruna, who's journey speaks of the transformative power of love and service. Aruna grew up in a poor leprosy community in India and, like so many other kids growing up in the harsh reality of a slum, did not believe in her dreams or that much good would come from her life, other than a prescribed arranged marriage. That was, until, she met Jayesh Patel, co-founder of Manav Sa... posted on Sep 7, 3027 reads

An Illustrated Love Letter to Canine Companions
There's something deep nestled within a dog's unconditional love, that prompts humanity's abiding devotion to these gracious,four-legged beings. In our worst of times, they are always there -- cold nose pressed firmly to heart, reminding us that we are not alone. In her beguiling book, Beloved Dog, artist Maira Kalman brings to life the deep bond between humans and their canine companions.... posted on Nov 8, 14540 reads

A Love Letter to the Wilderness
This love letter to wilderness celebrates the 50th anniversary of the 1964 Wilderness Act with stunning images and excerpts of poetry and words on wilderness from Edward Abbey, Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Muir and Wallace Stegner. In 50 years, the designated wilderness areas in the United States has grown from nine to 109 million acres, including national forests, national parks, national wildlife r... posted on Jan 3, 5349 reads

India's First Shelter for Dogs with Disabilities
He is a renowned animal rights activist who holds many key positions in his home state. But nothing defines Mahendra better than his immense, undying love for animals. It was this love that led him to establish India's first home for dogs living with disabilities. Read on to learn how Mahendra's service to these dogs began after a chance encounter with a puppy on the streets of India.... posted on Jan 11, 14759 reads

'Love Rounds' at Loma Linda
"Love Rounds" are done at the Loma Linda hospital once a week. "This unique idea was started by Dr. Wil Alexander, PhD, who is currently 94 years old and still teaching and lecturing within the family medicine department. He is not a physician -- he is a minister and professor of religion at Loma Linda University, and brings an important non-medical perspective to the way we learned to look at pat... posted on Oct 7, 7198 reads

Breathing Love into a Community
Brothers Atman and Ali Smith, and their "brother from another mother" Andres Gonzales decided in college that after they graduated, they were going to do something about the suffering they saw in the world, in a holistic way. They moved back into the neighborhood they grew up in, and started an after-school program for the problem children in a school around the corner from their childhood home. T... posted on Sep 12, 3474 reads

Love's Footprints: A Bittersweet Tale of Lost & Found
"My colleagues who know about Pet Grief said "Get a paw print from Stella before she dies." Determined to honor her passing exactly right, I vowed "I will get that footprint." So begins this powerful story of a woman, a dog, two compassionate Vet Techs, and love's footprints...not always the ones you want, but the ones you need.... posted on Sep 19, 15302 reads

Barbara Crooker: Poetry as a Form of Love
"I believe the way we most fully integrate ourselves with the world, is through our senses. When I teach creative writing classes, I love it when I get a five-day class, so that each day I give them an exercise based on one of the senses. I think the electronic world makes us out of touch with our embodied selves. For me, nature is a huge source. I want to be outside. I want to turn to it. I want ... posted on Feb 3, 11864 reads

Coming in Peace, 2017
In this brief, poignant post, Tracy Cochran of Parabola magazine reminds us of a profoundly simple yet overlooked soul-soother that anyone can practice and share: forgiveness. This year, why not take one small step toward self-compassion and taste the peace that comes with self-acceptance. Say, "Forgiven." To yourself, then others. "To ask for and offer forgiveness is to put down arms, daring to s... posted on Jan 23, 11008 reads

Gandhi 3.0: Bridging the Internet and the Inner-Net
On the 147th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi's birth, Service Space founder Nipun Mehta gave a talk at Emory University that weaves stories from Gandhi's life into an illuminating take on how to live the ideal of 'change yourself, change the world' in modern times. His talk explores how our highly interconnected and technologically advanced age has the potential to make the power of love exponential... posted on Jan 30, 4352 reads

Cash & Care for Criminals: Reducing Gun Violence
Operation Peace Fellowship was founded by a core group of ex-cons to bring an end to gun violence. Together, they are working in Richmond, CA and other cities around the US to help gun-prone, troubled youth graduate from high school, find jobs, and settle conflicts without guns. Unconventional approaches have been used, like paying criminals to put down their guns, but more importantly, says James... posted on Apr 9, 3847 reads

Luc and the Lovingtons: Music as a Force of Love
At 6-years-old Luc Reynaud announced to his teacher that he was going to paint the moon. "And what about the Earth, Luc? What about the universe?" Luc felt an electric surge of energy through his body, as his teacher picked up a huge bolt of construction paper and unfurled it across the classroom floor. For the next few weeks, Luc -- along with his friends -- painted the universe. It was a heady f... posted on Mar 29, 10295 reads

For the Love of Bees: A Conversation with Meredith May
"(My grandfather) instilled in me a love of bees and their gentle nature, but I think what I absorbed from it-- without even realizing it -- is how his relationship with the bees gave him a relationship with everybody up and down (Big Sur)." Award winning journalist, writer, and beekeeper, Meredith May talks about family, beekeeping, and storytelling. ... posted on Apr 13, 3429 reads

Brother David Steindl-Rast on Matters of Heart
When Brother David reached out to his readers of Integral Yoga Magazine in the 1970s to write him on any matter on life and the spirit, one reader responded with an inspired request on matters of the heart. What do we mean when we talk of the heart space? Is it courage? Faithfulness? In his response, Brother David illuminates his view on what it truly means to life from love - in a heart-centred e... posted on Jul 17, 11195 reads

Sister Lucy: The Mother Teresa of Pune
Sister Lucy Kurien founded Maher in 1997, one small home in a village outside of Pune. This humble beginning has blossomed into over 30 homes in over 85 rural communities around Pune, India as well as locations in Ratnagiri, Kerala and Jharkhan and has served over 4,000 women, men and children. Maher means mother's home in Marathi. Sister Lucy has created the warmth and love of a mother's home for... posted on Jul 1, 12059 reads

5 Ways to Step Up Your Love for Nature
Writer Melissa Hellmann discusses 5 ways to take your love of the outdoors to the next level, including activities such as volunteer work and activism. In order to increase our positive experiences with the outdoors, she recommends we fix the trails, count animals, restore history, take activism outside, and ditch the car. ... posted on Sep 3, 6145 reads

Joserra Gonzalez: A Re-Love-Ution Blooms in Spain
"We are at the verge of many changes, and if we stay together in this journey, we can really face this big current which is taking us in a direction we don't know" Joserra's first question was "How can I serve?" He soon found the answers to why humans suffer and how to lessen our own suffering and that of those around us. From spending two years working in the slums of Ahmedabad, India to becoming... posted on Jul 21, 8766 reads

Algorithms & Love: Dancing with the Creative Tension of Our Time
"The data we can extract, the data we handily give up for the sake of short-term convenience or simply out of ignorance, is of monumental proportions. But we extract all this data to what end?" In a recent talk, ServiceSpace founder Nipun Mehta paints a vivid picture of today's world -- a world where algorithms powered by big data undergird almost every field of human endeavor, and have brought us... posted on Aug 17, 22063 reads

21 Lessons on Leadership and Love from an Uncommon Master
Frederic Pignon and his wife, Magali Delgado, travel the world performing and leading horsemanship and dressage clinics. Magali dazzles audiences with her ability to perform high-level dressage moves without so much as a bridle. Together the duo invite humanity into an altogether different approach to relationship. Their philosophy towards horses is actually a way of life: love, respect and unders... posted on Feb 13, 1626 reads

Ninety-Six Words for Love
Imagine if we had a richer vocabulary to describe a feeling we readily express, but fail to articulate: love. Sanskrit has 96 words for this emotion, the meaning of which varies with each giver and recipient. The English language lacks a deep vocabulary for feelings, at the expense of our rapid advances in thinking, science, and technology, suggests Robert Johnson. Are we depriving ourselves of a ... posted on Feb 4, 27310 reads

Jean Vanier: The Wisdom of Tenderness
Jean Vanier's life demonstrates tenderness. A philosopher, a Catholic social innovator, and the founder of The L'Arche movement, which is centered around people with mental disabilities, he has devoted his life to the practical application of Christianity's most paradoxical teachings: that there's power in humility, strength in weakness, and light in the darkness of human existence. The 147 L'Arch... posted on Feb 23, 12712 reads

Mister Roger's Message of Love
The release of the Mister Rogers documentary Won't You Be My Neighbor? calls to mind the essential message of Rogers' long-running children's program, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. Fred McFeely Rogers, who died in 2003, was also an ordained Presbyterian minister. Over the course of three decades on public broadcasting, he brought to millions of children what his faith's General Assembly referred to... posted on Jul 19, 20679 reads

Getting Proximate to Pain and Holding the Power of Love
In this interview, On Being's Krista Tippett speaks with Lucas Johnson and Rami Nashashibi about the impact of growing up in minority communities, the influence of social change leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, the ideas of justice, love, and more. Lucas Johnson is an ordained minster, writer, and social activist in Amsterdam, who serves as the coordinator for the Internation... posted on Aug 19, 5519 reads

The Price on Everything is Love
When the city of Detroit was going through a rough time, neighbors banded together to help each other. Now, the organization has become a community shop called Detroiters Helping Each Other, which offers services for free. Learn how love has become the greatest currency of all. ... posted on Aug 21, 6110 reads

Gandhi 3.0: A Grand Rehearsal of Unconditional Love
In the heart of Mahatma Gandhi's homeland, is a modern-day experiment of the timeless Law of Love. They call it Gandhi 3.0, where "Gandhi" stands for the age-old principle of leading with inner transformation, and "3.0" represents the many-to-many networks that are popularized by Internet. In January 2018, around the 100th anniversary of the Gandhi Ashram, the experiment culminated in a global ret... posted on Oct 2, 3090 reads

Maira Kalman: Daily Things to Fall in Love With
Maira Kalman would describe her life as very boring. "If most people had to live it, they would go, 'Oh, that's it?'" she says. Yet the visual storyteller, and author and illustrator of over 20 books for adults and children leads a life that would leave many with feelings of awe and fascination. Paying keen attention to its details, she is a master of introspection, curiosity, and awareness. In th... posted on Feb 14, 6761 reads

Gus: A Story of Loss and Love
There is a saying that when we know better, we do better. Such was the case for Gus Mojica, a former gang member. As a young teen, he did what others in his neighborhood were doing without seeing or knowing a better way to live. He recalls vividly the night that changed everything for him. After being in a gang for almost 20 years, he suffered a loss that showed him he had to change. What he has d... posted on May 9, 7165 reads

Farewell to Jean Vanier
Jean Vanier, philosopher, theologian, humanist and founder of L'Arche departed our physical world on May 7, 2019 at the age of 90. His heart, his love and his compassion live on in the hundreds of communities that have sprung from his love and compassion for humanity. This world wide movement is based on Vanier's belief that people with disabilities are teachers, rather that burdens to society.... posted on Jun 30, 6325 reads

Diane Ackerman: 100 Names for Love
Diane Ackerman, best selling author of A Natural History of the Senses, An Alchemy of Mind, and The Zookeeper's Wife, has built a reputation on her poetic sensibility and uncanny knack for scouting out connections between the heavens, Earth, and everything in between. In her latest memoir, One Hundred Names for Love: a Stroke, a Marriage, and the Language of Healing, Ackerman navigates between the... posted on Sep 23, 2997 reads

What Does it Mean to Love Someone?
What does it mean to love someone? In this heartwarming animated short film produced by Cecilia Baeriswyl and directed by Julio Pot, the dynamics of relationships are explored through an ordinary couple as they learn about the power of giving and receiving. Selected in more than 100 international festivals, this film is at once lighthearted and insightful.... posted on Oct 4, 5389 reads

Kintsugi: The Golden Joinery of Love
Sue Cochrane is a former family court judge who sought to bring more love into the practice of law. The forces she battled were not confined to the court room -- among them, poverty, violence, addiction, abuse, a terminal diagnosis and more. In this powerful piece, she explores kintsugi -- a stunning Japanese art form in which broken pottery is repaired by filling the cracks with gold. Kingtsugi, ... posted on Dec 26, 0 reads

While I Yet Live
The quilters of rural Gee's Bend, Alabama, many of whom are descendants of slaves, learned to quilt from their mothers and grandmothers. They also learned, sitting under the quilting table as small children, valuable life lessons, and the hopes and dreams their families had for them. Their brightly colored quilts speak of love, peace, joy, and the value of hard work. Like their mothers and grandmo... posted on Oct 20, 2824 reads

One Love
At five minutes to midnight on June 14, 2018, about 800 people waited to enter Jerusalem's Tower of David Museum. Jews, Muslims and Christians, young and old, most of them strangers to one another, they were forgoing a night's sleep for the chance to sing Bob Marley's "One Love" in three languages and three-part harmony as a show of unity from Israel.... posted on Jan 8, 10561 reads

Love in the Time of Coronavirus
"Pandemics are powerful phenomena. One moment, life proceeds per usual routines, and the next, we find ourselves scrambling over toilet paper. The coronavirus (COVID-19) has affected our lives in every way, and preventing transmission, while far from assured, appears to be straightforward. An equally daunting challenge, however, is about how we are going to interact with one another as this crisi... posted on Mar 22, 9005 reads

How to Be Alone
This charming video pays tribute to the happy wholesomeness of being alone. Tanya Davis recites her poem about the ways of solitude, gently cataloging all the places where aloneness can bring freedom and healing. Whether at a lunch counter, park bench, mountain trail, or on the edge of a dance floor - all you have to do is love yourself enough, to love being alone.... posted on Apr 27, 4690 reads

Greg Tehven: Business, Local Community and Love
"I think we have to love our sense of place, and champion the heck out of it", says Greg Tehven, who is turning the world of economic development on its head, and inviting people to build the communities they want to live in. Confronted with the business failings of his beloved hometown of Fargo, North Dakota, he asked himself what the community could offer to the public that would help get it bac... posted on May 11, 3425 reads

bell hooks: Love as The Practice of Freedom
Social commentator, essayist, memoirist, and poet bell hooks is a feminist theorist who speaks on contemporary issues of race, gender, and media representation in America.In Black Looks (1994), she writes, "It struck me that for black people, the pain of learning that we cannot control our images, how we see ourselves (if our vision is not decolonized), or how we are seen is so intense that it ren... posted on Jun 7, 4241 reads

Amisha Harding: The Accidental Activist
"Amisha Harding was reluctant to join the crowd after seeing how some protesters clashed with police, vandalized property, and left shattered glass and burning cars in their wake opposite Centennial Olympic Park early in the Black Lives Matter protests. She took heed when Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms held a press conference and said, "If you love our city, go home." It was her love for her h... posted on Jun 25, 4517 reads

John Lewis on Love & the Seedbed of Personal Strength
"Once in a generation, if we are lucky, someone comes about who in every aspect of their being models for us how to do that, how to be that how to place love at the center, the center that holds solid as all around it breaks, the solid place that becomes the fort of what is unbreakable in us and the fulcrum of change. Among those rare, miraculous few was John Lewis (February 21, 1940July 17, 2020... posted on Jul 21, 9117 reads

How to Love a Country
The Cuban American civil engineer turned writer, Richard Blanco, straddles the many ways a sense of place merges with human emotion to make home and belonging -- personal and communal. The most recent -- and very resonant -- question he's asked by way of poetry is: how to love a country? At Chautauqua, Krista Tippett invited him to speak and read from his books. Blanco's wit, thoughtfulness, and e... posted on Nov 22, 4561 reads

The Clarinet in the Attic
"Pat and Peter went together to the doctor's appointment. In their eighties, theyd been married over sixty years. Pat was a poet; Peter, a retired minister. The specialist confirmed an earlier diagnosis: Peter was suffering from dementia, cause unknown. Some "accident in the brain" was robbing him of his short-term memory. Every ten or fifteen minutes, his mind would reboot, and he lost all recoll... posted on Dec 28, 5804 reads

For the Sake of One We Love and Are Losing: A Meditative Poem
The origin story of "For the Sake of One We Love and Are Losing" lies in a dream that writer Phyllis Cole-Dai had last year. This remarkable poem was published in the early days of the pandemic that has now claimed over 2 million lives worldwide. Cole-Dai's words have comforted many people through the grief and loss of these challenging times. What follows here is the poem's backstory in her own w... posted on Jan 28, 13439 reads

John Lewis: Love in Action
"Here is an extraordinary conversation with the late congressman John Lewis, taped in Montgomery, Alabama, during a pilgrimage 50 years after the March on Washington. It offers a special look inside his wisdom, the civil rights leaders spiritual confrontation within themselves, and the intricate art of nonviolence as 'love in action.'" More from On Being.... posted on Feb 1, 6201 reads

The Only Real Antidote to Fear
"That in love and in life, freedom from fear -- like all species of freedom -- is only possible within the present moment has long been a core teaching of the most ancient Eastern spiritual and philosophical traditions. It is one of the most elemental truths of existence, and one of those most difficult to put into practice as we move through our daily human lives, so habitually inclined toward th... posted on Apr 4, 7621 reads